Ribbon of Heart
by Alicia Jewel
Summary: White Mushrooms are nice, yes, but there is one White Mushroom who was created with a heart and a passion for stopping Maleficent. How long can she keep her secret in this tale of romance and rivalry? COMPLETE!
1. My Beginning

**Story Title:** Ribbon of Heart  
**Author:** Alicia Jewel  
**Summary:** White Mushrooms are nice, yes. But there is one White Mushroom who was created with a heart and a passion for stopping Malificent. How long can she keep her secret in this tale of romance and rivalry?

**_February 23, 2008 UPDATE:_**

_A Heart's Worth a Thousand Words, the prequel/rewrite to this story, has just been posted! Please go there to read the all-new version with all-new characters, including Lilac's parents, Miana and Spore._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters. I do, however, own everything else in this story. I guess I halfway own Lilac... Eh, whatever._

_Wow. From the looks of it, I'm the first one to write a fanfiction about a White Mushroom! I feel so special! Er, anyway, I wrote this because White Mushrooms are my FAVORITE Heartless, and because they're so innocent I thought, "What would it be like if there was a truely nice White Mushroom?" It's amazing where my imagination can take me..._

_Oh, by the way, I had to copy most of this chapter off the notebook paper where I wrote it... in the dark... from midnight to past 1 A.M._

_One more thing: Yes, I know I'm weird for writing a story about a White Mushroom._

**Chapter 1 - My Beginning**

Heartless are supposed to be evil and cruel, attacking anyone and everyone on sight. They are greatly feared by nearly all who encounter them. There are only two exceptions to that description: White Mushrooms and Rare Truffles. And among those two is one exceptional exception: me, Lilac the White Mushroom. My story is one of deception and trust, love and pain. It's of adventure, secrets, love, and unexpected twists.

It all started when I was shopping in Agrabah. The afternoon sun beat down on the big pink bow I wore on my head. That bow was my symbol; people knew that I was a heartful Heartless (that was an oxymoron if I've ever seen one) as long as I wore it. Of course, I _never_ had it on when around other Heartless. If they knew my secret, I would be captured and destroyed.

After thanking Walt Disney for days off, I began browzing the various stands of the Bazaar. My mind was set on buying an oasis orange. I had always had an interest in tasting desert fruits but never got the chance to try one. Today was my lucky day. I stopped in a short line leading to a pile of orange balls and their merchant. Bingo!

In a matter of two minutes, I had bought my fruit and was sitting on a box in the storage room. Nobody ever went in there, especially not Heartless. If anything, a bunch of people would come in and move some boxes. Not that it mattered. I would be out in less than ten minutes, anyway.

I was halfway though my first orange, biting down with my hidden mouth, when the Save Point across the room began to glow. Wait... Didn't Malificent say something about transfering Heartless through Save Points? That means... Oh, no! I dropped my lunch and scurried behind a pile of crates just as three figures appeared in the room.

Oh. My. Gosh. It... It can't be! But it was. The three figures, a human, duck, and dog, were none other than the famous Sora, Donald, and Goofy! I gasped and emerged from my hiding place.

Donald quacked in confusion. "Sora," he began, tapping the boy's shoulder, "is there supposed to be a White Mushroom in here?"

Sora looked at me and blinked his blue eyes. "That's weird..." he muttered. "But I DO need a Mystery Goo."

What? Did he NOT see the ribbon on my head? I pointed to it with my fingerless hand, but Sora didn't even notice. He stepped closer and held up his Keyblade. No, he'd better not...

"Come on," he urged, tapping the Keyblade against the floor. I just stared at him with my white eyes. "Well?" Sora asked.

"There is no way," I growled, causing the trio to jump, "that I'm gonna do a trick for you."

"She talked!" Goofy gasped.

"Wellllll, DUH!" I stated matter-of-factly. "Sheesh, do you three know nothing?" Silence. "The bow?" Zip. "Oh, my gosh, I'm LILAC!" Nada. "Don't tell me you haven't heard of me."

"Well..." Sora hesitated, "n-no. We haven't."

I froze. Sora lifted his weapon to cast Stopra (or whatever he had at the time), but I jumped out of the way just before it could hit me. "How _stupid_ can you get to not have heard of me? Don't you catch up with current events?"

"Ah, shaddup!" Donald quacked, holding up his now-glowing staff.

"Donald, stop!" Sora commanded. "She's obviously different from the other Heartless."

"Thank you," I sighed. "Well, since you three are pretty much in the dark here, I'll explain myself." I invited them all to sit on some boxes as I stood tall on a stack of crates. "Well, I am a very different Heartless, indeed, mostly in the way that I am kind and peaceful. Yes, I'm a White Mushroom, but I was accidently created with a heart."

"What!" the others exclaimed.

"Gawrsh, really?" Goofy awed.

I nodded my head in affirmation. "Wanna feel?" I offered. "Here, put your fingers on my chest."

Sora stood up and pressed his index and middle fingers where my Heartless symbol was. I felt my own pulse gently drum against his skin. "Wow..." he whispered. "That's amazing!" He backed away and sat down on his box again. "How come Malificent hasn't noticed?"

_(Author's Note: For my story since I seem to be quite good at twisting things around a little, I'm assuming that Malificent controls the Heartless. Don't question my ways! ... Sorry. Shutting up now.)_

"Well, because she kind of doesn't have time to check if every Heartless has a pulse," I replied. "Basically, she's too busy and stupid to notice. But that's beyond the point." I plopped down on my behind and continued. "The point is that I'm working against the Heartless and have no intrest of hurting anyone _or_ giving anyone any Mystery Goo," I added, shooting a glance at Sora.

"Wait!" Donald suddenly piped up. Of course. "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

Sheesh, did he _ever_ shut up? "You can ask anyone in this place. You guys know Leon, right?" Nods came from the three. "Well, he's been helping me ever since I first ran away. I met him in Traverse Town, and he agreed to help me in taking down Malificent. You can definitely ask him if I'm telling the truth."

"Well..." Goofy mumbled, "if she's working with Leon..."

"Then she _must_ be telling the truth!" Sora concluded.

Ding ding!

* * *

He wants proof, he says. He still doesn't believe me. So, what do I have to do? I have to travel all the way to Traverse Town in a cramped ship to prove to Dummy Duck that I'm telling the truth. What a way to spend the day off. 

Donald turned to me and narrowed his eyes. Had I said something I didn't mean to? Then I realized that I had been muttering under my breath and accidently said everything from "Dummy Duck" a bit too loud. Hehe... Oops.

"Why do we have to do this?" I asked as Donald turned back to the controls.

"Because it's _my_ ship," Donald quacked, "and _I _decide where we go! And we're going to Traverse Town to ask Leon if you're lying or not!"

Sweet Walt... I leaned back in my chair and began a silent prayer: _Dear Walt Disney, please let us get there soon. Also..._ No. That's not right, wishing for someone's death.

We docked in the First District of Traverse Town. I led the group through the crowd that proceeded toward us. Darn you, fandom!

Once we reached the door leading to the Second District, I halted. "There are other Heartless beyond here." I removed my bow and asked Sora to hide it in his pack. "I'll make things easier for all of us. Give me ninty seconds to get into the hotel's Red Room. Meet me there, but act natural. You never know who could be watching..."

I pushed through the large doors and met face-to-face with some Yellow Operas. "Halt!" one of them shouted, flying forward. "State your business."

"Orders from Malificent," I explained in the evil, half-monotone voice of an on-duty Heartless. "This area, the hotel, and the alley are all to be cleared, and its workers are to move to Neverland."

They knew better than to question Malificent's orders, so they shook their bodies up and down in approval and floated to the hotel. I followed them inside, where I explained that I was to patrol the area for an hour. I didn't bother to say why. That would arouse suspicion, for Malificent rarely explained the reasoning for her orders.

In all of eighty-five seconds, I was sitting on a bed in the hotel. For once, it was completly silent... for a while, anyway. Soon, the sound of dying Heartless was heard outside. (I guess not all of them had left yet.) Sora, Goofy, and Dummy... er, Donald walked through the door.

"Leon should be down in the Secret Waterway," I said, standing up, "but it's too big of a drop. Can any of you fly?"

"Sure," Sora replied, lifting up into the air. No wings... wow. The rumors _were_ true.

"I'm not very heavy," I stated. "One of you can carry me down with you."

Sora walked up to me and lifted me up. "Ready?" he asked, proceeding out the door leading to the balcony. Without waiting for me to answer, he leapt into the air and glided among the air currents, Goofy and Donald following behind.

I gasped as we floated closer to the ground. "So, this is what it's like to fly..." I giggled and let the breeze play with my blackness-concealed face. The fantasy ended all too soon, and Sora's feet touched the ground below.

"Oh, another thing," I uttered, clearing my throat, "I can't swim. Since ducks are such good swimmers, maybe I could ride on your back, Donald."

* * *

Donald grumbled and splashed water as I adjusted my bow. "Careful," I teased as Donald started to roll over. "Don't wanna fall, do you?" 

As Donald muttered a string of swears, I looked up to see Leon sparring with Yuffie. "Hey!" I called, waving my white arm. I felt Donald starting to tip over again below me. "Leon! Yuffie!"

Yuffie looked up and smiled. "Hey, Lilac!" she called.

Take that, ducky.

_Ok, that was mostly my Donald-bashing chapter. Sorry to all you Donald fans out there. But ya know what reeks? My personality matches Donald's the most! AHH! Err... Anyway, the next chapter will start the plot and introduce some new characters._

_Most of this chapter was inspired by my need to write a Donald-bashing chapter. And the fact that I needed some comic relief from my usually serious stories._


	2. Truff

_Wow! People actually read my story! Coolness!_

_**Rike-sama: **I sort of like Donald myself, but only because he looks cute when he's not mad. (By cute, I mean puppy dog cute.)_

_**crystalfeathers:** Who is your White Mushroom character? I could try to add him/her into the story, if you want me to._

_And now, after spending forever trying to write this dumb thing..._

**Chapter 2 - Truff**

After Leon confirmed my story, Sora explained to me that he, Dummy, and Goofy were going to participate in the upcoming tournament at the Olympus Coliseum. I agreed to go only because I hadn't seen any action in a while. Eh, there's the life of a White Mushroom for you.

The four of us went our seperate ways -- three of us to the main gate and one to the side with her ribbon hidden -- once we arrived at the Coliseum. The worst possible thing to do with this many Heartless around nearby would be caught walking with the three biggest threat to Malificent's plans. So, I headed to the side gates where non-competitors were seated and took my place among a group of White Mushrooms. Strange... How did so many Heartless get the day off? I merely shrugged it off and looked out at the battlefield.

The first round was five Yellow Operas and five Green Requiems against a single Rare Truffle. I laughed softly and leaned back in my seat. "The Truffle's toast; no competition for those other guys."

"I wouldn't say that," the White Mushroom next to me half-sang. "Haven't you heard the news?"

I turned my head and blinked. "What news?"

"About how that Rare Truffle down there, Truff, has been trained for actual combat," the girl replied. "It's not just bouncing anymore. This is the first time anyone has ever seen a Rare Truffle fight!"

I was instantly interested. Leaning forward for a closer look, I saw the mushroom's eyes filled with what I would definitly call a fighting spirit. Amazing. How many others had been trained like him?

"He's the only one." I jumped out of my seat in surprise. How did she...? "By the way, I never caught your name." Wow. What a subject-changer!

"I never threw it," I whispered to myself. Then I realized that saying "Lilac" would sound an alarm among the Heartless. I had to make up something, anything! "Lola," was the first word that came out of my mouth.

"That's a pretty name... better than mine. I'm White Cherry, Cherry for short."

"White Cherry..." I softly echoed. "I like that. It suits you."

"Me and every other White Mushroom in the universe," Cherry mumbled. It was amazing how two Heartless, even one with a heart, could have such a normal conversation like humans. Could it be possible that she, too, was an Imperfect?

In the middle of my thoughts, a gong rang out, and all eyes went to the field. The two teams were posed for battle. Truff was the first to move. He bounced high in the air and slapped an oncoming Opera out of the sky -- WHAM into the ground. Gasps and awws swelled from the crowd as Truff knocked down two more to the arena's floor. Three down in less than five seconds... Pure amazement! Suddenly, a wave of a single emotion coursed through me. I felt like a cloud floating across the sky. A new ecstacy filled my heart. Did I have a crush on the blue fighter?

"Lola," Cherry whispered. "You've got that look... You like him, don't you?" Before I could even react, she laughed. "Relax. You're not alone. Looks like every other mushroom girl here feels the same way."

How was that possible? Heartless, as their names imply, don't have hearts, unless they're an Imperfect. Even some Imperfects don't have them. How could they, too, fall in love with Truff? I looked over at a White Mushroom who was staring at the Rare Truffle with a hand on her cheek. Something didn't feel right... Was it false love that they were feeling?

Before I knew it, the last of the floating magicians was brought down, and cheers rang out all across the stadium. "Wow!" I exclaimed. "He beat all ten of them with his bare hands!"

I watched round after round of Truff bringing down his foes. Finally, the time came for the final round. I gasped as Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked onto the field facing Truff. A chill went down my spine. The two teams (if Truff could be call a team) who could take out every single competitor in the tournament were facing off. Who would win?

The gong rang out, and the battle began. Sora ran forward with his Keyblade, but Donald and Goofy simply paced over. What? Did they _not_ know that he could fight? Again with the ignorance... Sheesh. Sora waited for Truff to make a move, but he stood as still as a rock. Sora swiped the Keyblade at his underside, launching him up into the air. Sora jumped up to strike again, only to be slapped right back to the ground. Laughter erupted from the audience. I let out a small giggle, hoping Sora wouldn't see or hear me.

"What the heck?" I heard Sora gasp. Donald and Goofy got into their battle stances and faced the Rare Truffle. "Allright. If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" He charged forward with his two comrades and swung his key at him. Truff dodged and jumped behind them. Donald whirled around and received a slap to the face. Truff chuckled and bounced about, taunting Sora and the party.

"Holy Malificent..." Cherry whispered. "He's making a fool out of Sora!" Then, with seemingly less enthuiasm, she added, "Cool!"

"This is just... wow," I half-whispered. "Who ever would have thought that a Rare Truffle could win a Coliseum tournament?"

Spoke too soon. Truff looked over to the side where Cherry and I were sitting and paused for a short moment. Sora gave the mushroom a good _whack_ on the noggin, sending him into the invisible barrier on the edge of the field. His original Rare Truffle instinct suddenly kicked in, and he jumped into the air and disappeared.

Every Heartless watching the events began booing at Sora. It took all of security to get them under control and not attack the champion.

"Why did he just vanish like that?" I whispered, backing away from the mob.

"Maybe there was a flaw in his upgrade."

I let out a soft shriek and spun around. Cherry was standing there with some other White Mushrooms, obviously the ones who did not want to fight due to lack of strength.

"_Please_ don't do that again," I gasped. I would have said, "You almost gave me a heart attack," but that would have given away my posistion.

"Come on!" Cherry suddenly urged, grabbing my arm. "Truff is gonna be out back in a few minutes. We _have_ to meet him!"

"And you know this how?" I asked, trying to keep my underside from scraping against the rocky ground below.

"Eh, I have my ways."

What a strange one, that White Cherry.

_To be continued..._

_Pointless chapter? Think again, all._


	3. Magic Mushroom

_It's great that people are actually reading this, but I need more! Tell your friends about this story!_

_**Rivendella: **Yay! New reader! Gracias, amigo!_

_**Rike-sama:** About your not pointless chapter comment: It's what I think if a chapter is not moving the plot forward very much. Character introduction chapters aren't my favorite. Also, since you're having Heartless trouble, I can send you a diagram of all the Heartless to make it easier for you. By the way, can I get some sound files of the characters of the German version? I need a good laugh today._

_By the way, this chapter title is NOT referring to… Well, if you're old enough, you know what I'm talking about._

**Chapter 3- Magic Mushroom**

If anyone were to ask me, I'd tell them that I thought that Cherry was mentally insane. She probably got dropped on her red head when she was created or something. Even if she turned out to be an Imperfect (which I did not doubt), she still seemed a bit… different from the others. Eh, whatever. So, Cherry was dragging me to the back of the Coliseum where I would meet Truff… and about a hundred other White Mushrooms, apparently. Did _everyone_ get the same inside information?

As soon as we approached the group, a strange sensation began to overwhelm my being. It was the same feeling I got when I saw the White Mushroom staring at Truff with what seemed to be nothing short of infatuation. Did every White Mushroom feel this way? Obviously not Cherry. She must have been created with at least half a heart to feel so strongly about a single Heartless. Honestly, it frightened me.

I looked over at my friend. The sensation of false love did not leave me. Strange… Was it still White Cherry that I was looking at? Why did she seem to have that same empty emotion that the others had?

I stood on the front end of my hollow underside (seeing as how all mushrooms lack toes) and tried to get a good view of the near-victorious Rare Truffle. The only think I saw was a mass of red and white… with a yellow top on the edge of it all. Bingo!

"Do you see him?" Cherry asked, trying to get a peek herself. She seemed more enthusiastic now.

"Barely," I muttered, trying not to topple over. "I think we should wait until this crowd – Whoa!" I shrieked, falling flat on my black face. _Great… And in front of all these White Mushrooms, too._ Before I could get up, I felt a new kind of energy in my body. When I got to my "feet," I created an arc shape in the air, starting at the top, with my arms. Suddenly, Cherry glowed green for a short moment, and her health seemed to be slightly better.

All eyes were suddenly on me. Whispers of "Did she just cast a Cure spell?" and "What kind of White Mushroom is she?" made their way into my ear holes.

"Lola…" Cherry gasped. "Did you just…?"

"She's not a normal White Mushroom," someone behind me stated. I spun around to see a few Soldiers in a horizontal line behind the crowd. In the middle of them all was one that was about twice as tall as the others, who spoke again: "And Maleficent never authorized any upgrades or special training involving White Mushrooms and magic." He snapped two metallic fingers, and the four smaller ones marched over to me. Two of them grabbed my arms, and the others lifted me into the air by my white body.

"Hey!" I called. "Put me down!" I began flailing my arms and squirming my skinny body about, hoping to escape from the fingers of my captors.

"Stop resisting," one of the Soldiers buzzed.

"Lola!" I heard Cherry call, but she seemed to stop halfway through the word. Both of us knew that questioning the direct underlings of Maleficent would result in punishment.

"Move along!" the head Soldier shouted. "Nothing to see here."

Nothing, my hollow butt!

* * *

"So, she cast a magic spell, did she?" Maleficent questioned in a smooth tone. That tone scared me.

"Yes, ma'am," the head Soldier replied. Only two normal Soldiers were holding me by my arms now.

The tall woman paced around me, looking my white and red body over. "I see," she mumbled, rubbing her chin. "What spell was it?" She looked down at me with piercing eyes.

"C-C-Cure," I replied, trying not to shake. What if she discovered that I was an Imperfect; one with a heart, at that?

"Interesting." She continued to pace around me. What was she trying to discover? "Have you ever trained in magic?"

"N-No, ma'am. I just feel to the ground and… well, I just… did it." _That was the lamest statement I've ever heard come from my mouth._

There were several moments of awkward silence. Finally, Maleficent's piercing eyes made their way to the Soldiers gripping me. "Test her."

_Gulp._

* * *

My heart was beating at a rapid pace as the open-ended glass cylinder clanked against the floor. Several wires were attached to me. I was just hoping that none of them could detect my heartbeat!

"All computers on, ma'am," a Black Fungus announced, typing in some commands on the keyboard. I noticed that he seemed to have a darker coloration to him than the others working on the computers.

"Begin the tests," Maleficent hissed.

_Dear Walt,_ I prayed, holding back tears of fear, _Please let me get out of this undiscovered. And remind me to kill White Cherry for getting me into this mess… Agh, there I go again, wishing for someone's death._

I felt small, painless jolts of electricity hit me. What kind of tests were they performing? I titled my head to get a better view of one of the screens. Nothing but gibberish and bar graphs appeared. Most of the stats, save for one on the far right, were at the top, threatening to climb over the edge.

"Her magic levels match that of the most powerful Wizards!" one of the Heartless exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"Amazing," Maleficent whispered. "If such power lies naturally within her, then imagine the possibilities of training her to do much more!"

"Training me?" I asked, pressing the end of my arms against the glass.

Maleficent looked over at the darker-colored Black Fungus. "Release her," she ordered. Seconds later, all the wires popped off, and the glass tube was lifted to the ceiling. "White Mushrooms are constantly made fools of, are they not? Being forced to do charades and give their rarest items away."

"Indeed," I replied, trying to keep a steady monotone voice.

"Imagine the possibilities of improving your magic powers. You will be able to join the most powerful Heartless armies to take down the Keyblade master. You will seem like an innocent mushroom at first, but you will surprise Sora and his little friends when you cast a magic spell on them."

"No disrespect, ma'am," I began, "but I do not even know how I cast that spell in the first place."

"Do not let that worry you. Once we channel into your abilities, it will be simple after that."

_What does that old witch know about zip?_ I thought, raising an invisible eyebrow.

"Find the Rare Truffle we have trained for battle!" the mage ordered. Why did she not call him by name? "He may be able to help this one here."

As the Black Fungi exited the room, the one with the darker coloration gave me what appeared to be a glare of suspicion. Did he find out something from the tests? Why didn't he tell Maleficent? I simply stared back, unblinking, until he paced out of the room, leaving me to wait for further instructions.

_To be continued…_

_Da, da dum-dum! Yup, it looks like our friend Lilac has magic powers! Wonder how THAT will change the story?_

_By the way, this is going to be my main project for a while. I'll still update Shalla's Legacy some, yes, but not as much as normal. I know EXACTLY what I want to do with this story, so it'll be easier to write._


	4. Midnight

_Finally, a review! And an update!_

_**Rike-sama: **Ooh! I LOVE that pic! I wish I was an artist like you... By the way, in case you're wondering, I'm not telling if you're right about who's Imperfect and who's not. Hehe... Oh, and I'll be sure to get around to that diagram when I find some good pics._

_You know what's weird? Sickness seems to cure my writer's block..._

**Chapter 4 - Midnight**

Apparently, White Cherry wasn't the only one dropped on her head. How in the name of Walt was a magicless Rare Truffle supposed to help me? Of course, I didn't dare to say that out loud. Walt knows what Maleficent would suspect if I questioned her orders.

The training arena looked like the Coliseum, only more dark and metallic. Heartless symbols marked nearly every little thing inside. There were doors on either end and one on the side. I stood in front of the back-end door, waiting for Truff and whatever crazy training techniques he had for me.

Suddenly, I began to think about Cherry. Where had she run off to after I had been seized? And, more importantly, why had I got that "she's infatuated" feeling when I was around her, and then it just suddenly vanished? Was there more to my new friend than I had thought?

"Lola," a voice suddenly stated. I snapped out of my sky-high thoughts and saw the Rare Truffle standing there with two Wizards behind him.

"H... How do you know my name?" I asked, thanking Walt (I've been doing that a lot lately) that he did not know that I was really Lilac.

"I know a lot about you," Truff replied, walking over to me. "I saw you cast a Cure spell on White Cherry. No White Mushroom has ever cast a spell before. But what is most curious... is why you cast the spell on her instead of yourself, especially when you were the one who fell." He began pacing around me, and I froze in place. My ribbon was in my back pocket! (Yes, White Mushrooms have pockets. You just can't see them because they're the same color as their skin.) "Maleficent has instructed that you learn to cast magic with the help of these two Wizards here," Truff explained, arriving right into my view again. Phew... He hadn't seen it! "Then, I will teach you how to use that magic offensivly and defensivly in battle."

Ah... So that was how he was supposed to help me. Everything began falling into place... Well, almost everything. I still had my questions about not only Cherry, but the Black Fungus that had glared at me so suspiciously. Did he know I was an Imperfect? I began to fear that he was telling Maleficent behind my back so much that I failed to notice the Wizards floating around me. _Great... More personal space invaders._

"To begin," one of the Wizards said in a rasping voice, "we must discover what makes your magic activate." I tried to hold back a shiver of fear, but with no luck. My body began to shake, and I wrapped my arms around myself instinctively. Suddenly, I felt warmer, but not just because of my arms. The next thing I knew, I was throwing my arms into the air, and fire was shooting out of them. When it was through, I was left standing there, completely bewildered.

"Interesting," Truff muttered. "That shivering gesture is the same one performed when Fire is to be cast on a White Mushroom." If he had a visible mouth, I would have seen him smiling. "That must be it. In order to cast a spell, you must first perform the gesture used before a spell is cast!"

I blinked and paused for a few moments. "So, in other words, I have to shiver to cast Fire, fan myself to cast Blizzard, and so on?" I inquired.

"It seems to be that way," Truff observed, nodding his head in affirmation. "So, when you tripped, it caused you to cast Cure on your friend."

Well, at least one of my questions was answered.

The sun had just disappeared under the horizon when I rounded a corner of the Hollow Bastion Castle. A while back, Sora had told me that he was going to stay in a hotel in Traverse Town, so I figured I'd go and tell him about my magic powers. Nobody ever patrolled the teleporters at night, seeing as how the dark look of the castle itself seemed to scare everyone off, so I was safe.

With the ribbon on my head once more, I paced across a downslope to the glowing crystal at the front gates. I reached up to touch it when I was suddenly lifted into the air.

"AIEE!" I shrieked, gasping in shock. When my vision was no longer a blur (I hate heights), I noticed that I was trapped in a net. _Oh, crud!_ I mentally gasped. _It's a booby trap!_

"Well, what do we have here?"

I looked down and saw nothing but darkness at first, but a certain cluster of black seemed to take shape. A mushroom shape. Upon closer examination, I saw that it was the same Black Fungus who had given my the glare after my tests.

"You!" I growled.

The dark mushroom pulled a lever, and net was lowered to just above his height. "So, the readings were true," he scowled. "You _are_ Imperfect. And one with a _heart_ at that!"

I began to shake in fear. Then it hit me. I wrapped my arms around myself, but his voice interrupted me:

"Don't even try it, _Lilac_," he snapped, adding extra emphasis onto my name. "This net is magic-proof. You can't escape." He paused for a dramatic effect. "I guess you're identity isn't a secret anymore, is it?"

"Who are you!" I demanded.

"What an attitude this one has," the Black Fungus muttered. "My name is Midnight, but I am referred to as The Imperfect Hunter. I track down all the Imperfects, capture them, and have them destroyed."

Another question formed on my lips: "But... I don't understand. If you knew that I was Imperfect, why didn't you tell Maleficent?"

Midnight scoffed. "I'm feeling forgiving. If you can end your rebellious ways, then I won't turn you in. But if you fail..." He poked me in the chest. "Then you can kiss this heart of yours good-bye."

I almost fainted on the spot. After spending months trying to conceal my true identity, a single Black Fungus with a really bad attitude just _had_ to find out. What a night...

"You're lucky you possess magical powers, otherwise I wouldn't even be offering this," Midnight growled. "I can help you turn into what you truely are... A _Heartless_!"

_And just how does he plan to do...?_ In an instant, I found myself on the ground with his lips against mine. My eyes were wide, and chills were running up and down my spine. When he pulled away, I knew what he had been trying to do...

Dark Love.

Those two words were the poison of all Imperfects. Somehow, a kiss from the most evil Heartlesses could cause even the purest of Imperfects to turn evil within twenty-four hours. And I knew that he was one of those who had the power of the Dark Love.

The word "Love" didn't fit the special power. There was nothing loving about it. It wasn't even infatuation! It was only a lip-lock made for evil. And, more than anything, it was disgusting.

_(A/N: I know the quotation mark style changes here, but I changed to a better word processor for the rest of this story.)_

"Like I said, you're a lucky one," Midnight hissed. "I don't just kiss any Heartless." With that, he turned around and walked off.

_To be continued..._

_Yeah, I know this chapter was shorter than the others, but I didn't really have much to write for this one. I'm gonna start getting to the plot-twists pretty soon._

_I want at least one review before I write Chapter 5!_


	5. Cursed Or am I?

_**Update (July 13, 2006):** Added in a few scene-switch bars that I forgot to add in when I first posted this chapter._

_**Kingdomhearts soar** - Whoo hoo! Another reviewer! Anyway, about your Walt Disney comment, he is basically God in this fic since he made the Disney characters and such. Most Heartless would praise Maleficent or Ansem, but Lilac is different. Oh, and I'm guessing Hades would be the devil... Or Ansem. (Is it just me, or is it just CREEPY when his shirt is off for the final boss?)_

**Chapter 5 - Cursed... Or am I?**

As I lay in my chambers that night, I began to ponder his words. "I don't just kiss any Imperfect." It wasn't the words themselves that bothered me... but it was his tone that did. His words had been plastered with evilness until he said that single sentence, which seemed to have its darkness peeled off slightly. Could it be at all possible that he, The Imperfect Hunter, was an Imperfect himself?

As if by pure coincidence, my mind flashed to when I had only just been created. The memory had been long lost until now, when it seemed to be more vivid than the day itself...

_

* * *

I stood in the middle of a cluster of Heartless, standing as high as I could to see over the Soldiers in front of me. We were all in a room crowded around a circular platform with a tube in the middle of it. Maleficent stood in front of the tube, holding the chain attached to the collar of an imprisoned Bouncywild._

"_My minions," Maleficent began, holding a hand out toward the monkey-like Heartless. "The Bouncywild you see here... possesses a heart!"_

_Collective gasps swelled up in the crowd. I was the only one who was silent. What was so bad about having a heart?_

"_She has been planning rebellious actions against the entire Heartless army!" Maleficent continued. "And she would have not been found had my Imperfect Hunter not been there."_

_Right on cue, a Black Fungus with darker coloration than the others in the audience walked up onto the platform. He stopped next to Maleficent and bowed. Cheers erupted from the others. Why was I the only one who was confused?_

"_I hereby sentence her to her death!" Maleficent boomed._

_Everyone applauded as the Bouncywild began to shriek and tug at the collar. She pulled out her slingshot and aimed at Maleficent, but The Imperfect Hunter smacked it out of her hand and crushed it with his skull. The monkey was dragged to the tube, and metallic bounds wrapped around her feet. As the tube lowered, she attempted to paw her way up, but she was stuck to the ground._

"_LET ME GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she shouted, pounding on the sides of the tube._

"_Destroy her!" Maleficent commanded, pointing at The Imperfect Hunter._

* * *

There was no way that any bit of evilness could have left his voice in his final statement.

He had been the one who pulled the lever, sending painful bursts of energy right through the Bouncywild's heart. Up until the day that I discovered that Heartless were meant to be... well, heartless, I had been utterly confused about why she had been sentenced to death.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!"

I sat up and gasped. What in the name of Walt...? Curiously, I got out of bed and cracked the door open a bit. Standing there was none other than White Cherry, shouting at a Search Ghost.

"I saw you! I saw what you were doing!" Cherry growled.

I shivered, holding back the urge to wrap my arms around myself. A strange feeling overcame me. Was this the same White Cherry, always so hyper for a Heartless, shouting at this Search Ghost? She would never shout at anyone... would she?

"I can explain!" the Search Ghost said, obviously in full panic. Was he, too, an Imperfect?

Cherry continued to glare at him with a hardened look in her eyes. Suddenly, her gaze softened. "So, you _are_ Imperfect," she whispered.

I could only blink in confusion.

"W-What...?" the Search Ghost muttered.

Unfortunately, my lack of balance kicked in again, and, as I leaned forward for a better listen of their argument, I toppled over onto my face. I quickly got up to avoid casting another Cure spell.

"Lola?" Cherry gasped, backing away. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," I growled. "What's going on? One second, you're yelling at him, and the next you're being as gentle as... as..."

"As an Imperfect," Cherry concluded. She looked around. "There had better not be anyone else with you."

"There's not. I have a room by myself."

Cherry sighed, shaking her head. "I didn't wanna do this..."

"You... You're not gonna turn me in, are you?" the Search Ghost asked, shaking.

"No, no. I'm not gonna turn either of you in." She exhaled softly. "Let's talk in your room... Lilac."

* * *

"So, you've known all this time?" I asked, adjusting my bow.

"Yes," Cherry replied. "Though I wish I didn't..."

"Why not?" the Search Ghost, Mauve, inquired. "If we're all Imperfects, then..."

"I'm not fully Imperfect," Cherry interrupted.

There was a frightening silence in the room for what seemed to be the longest time. I could only sit there, blinking in confusion. Did I dare ask...?

"You see," the White Mushroom began, "I am an Imperfect, yes, but..." She paused. "You two have to understand that what I'm about to say is really hard. I've barely even been able to tell myself."

"We'll understand," Mauve said, nodding his head.

More silence. "I... Well, sometimes, even though I'm Imperfect, I'll somehow convert back to evil."

"W... What?" I whispered.

"But it doesn't happen very often. Maybe ten percent of the time, I'm evil. It usually wears off pretty quickly." A tear fell from her eye. "I've turned in an Imperfect before. He was the boyfriend of the Bouncywild who was destroyed a while back, Coral. His name was Cobalt, and he led the small army of Imperfects.

"We were about to unleash our first attack. I was to be the signaler. Before we began our raid, I stood next to Cobalt, and we reviewed the signals. Suddenly, I felt myself change. Darkness began to overwhelm me. The next thing I knew, I was shouting, 'Imperfect Heartless! Imperfect Heartless!' The others had run off, but I had Cobalt by the arm with a firm grip.

"Maleficent came in and arrested him. He was destroyed a few days later. I was crowned as a hero among my peers, but I was ashamed of myself. I ran away for a long time and came back with my new identity of White Cherry."

"What was your name before you came back?" I asked in my softest voice.

Cherry turned her head. "I can't tell you, Lilac. Not yet. But one day, when you're ready, you will learn my name. Not by my telling, but by your own heart."

Mauve shifted his mid-air position. He seemed a bit uncomfortable with the fact that my best friend was part evil. Nonetheless, I would always accept it, even if she tried to turn me in one day.

"I may end up like that, too," I sighed, looking at the ground. "You know about Dark Love, right?"

"I've heard of it, yeah," Cherry mumbled, nodding her head.

"... I've been cursed with it," I managed to utter. "The Imperfect Hunter, Midnight, kissed me a couple of hours ago. It's only a matter of time before..."

For the first time in since Cherry had told her story, Mauve spoke: "Before nothing. Dark Love is only a myth. It never works. The whole process is in the head of the victim. Trust me; I've been through it before."

"You have?" I asked.

"It was a female Shadow who cursed me," Mauve explained. "She was well-known for turning even the most pure of Imperfects to evil. Only... she didn't kiss me. Her name was Siren. She gained that name because of the song that performed the Dark Love process. When she sang to me, I thought it was hopeless, that my mind was to be dissolved by darkness.

"That same night, I had a dream. A dream of a heart. I saw it covered with darkness. I attacked the darkness and cleaned the heart. When I woke up, I felt darkness lifting from me. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but... it's true."

_To be continued..._

_Weird place to end a chapter, I know, but if I had gone on, the chapter would have been too long for my standards._

_It was really hard to write this chapter for some reason. I'm never too good at writing how characters re-tell their stories. Oy._

_Anyway, same as last time: At least one review before I go on. And, Rike-sama, where are you?_


	6. First Battle

_**crystalfeathers: **I don't know much about nobodies, though they talked about them in Chain of Memories. Yes, readers, I have CoM. I got to the last of my first set of map cards in Riku's story by the time I updated this. Meaning, of course, that I will be purchasing Kingdom Hearts 2 soon. Boo yah!_

_**kingdomhearts soar: **I didn't even notice his pants. … Wait, that came out VERY wrong._

_Rike-sama, where are you? I need you to review!_

**Chapter 6 - First Battle**

So many questions... So few answers. Was the Dark Love going to affect me? Was it just a mind trick? Would White Cherry turn to evil and turn me in? And... what had her true name been?

More than anything, though, the words that Midnight had spoken were constantly coming back to me. "I don't just kiss any Imperfect." Even after remembering the way he had killed Coral, something still didn't seem right. What did he mean? Did he kiss me because I had powers and wanted them preserved? Or was he an Imperfect... who loved me?

The next thing I knew, someone's arm was wrapped around mine. I looked up to see Midnight, gripping me firmly and giving me a cold stare. Before I could scream, he covered my mouth and lifted me into the air.

"You're coming with me," he growled, dragging me out the door.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I tried to shout, but my words were muffled.

"Be quiet or be destroyed!"

I took the first choice and let the Black Fungus drag me down the hall. _Well, looks like all my questions are about to be answered,_ I thought as his quote came back to me for about the millionth time that night. I saw several Heartless, including Mauve, peek out of their rooms to watch me be dragged away. I knew that if it had not been the greatest Imperfect hunter of all time, my new friend would have jumped to the rescue the moment they saw me. I understood why he did not want to take his chances, and I did not want his life on the line just so that he could save me.

_But why is Cherry not curious about this?_ I thought. _Her room's nearby here, isn't it?_

Midnight pushed the castle's main doors open and carried me outside. It was still pretty dark, and the sun would not be up for a few more hours. Most importantly of all, the Heartless that patrolled this area would not be on duty for a while. Thank Walt.

"You're one very unlucky mushroom, Lilac," Midnight hissed as he continued to force me closer and closer to the castle's end. "Both you and your White Cherry friend."

By now, my mouth had been released from his grip. "What are you talking about?" I demanded.

A few steps further, Midnight knocked on a certain part of the wall with his free hand. I looked up to find the source of the whirring that had begun and gasped. A mechanical arm jutted out of the wall, and a cage dangled on the end of it. As the arm lowered the cage toward my captor and me, I saw that the girl inside it was none other than Cherry!

"No!" I half-shouted, watching my dismayed friend stare at me with her innocent eyes. "Let her go!"

"This is the only way," Midnight stated, releasing me. I ran over to the cage and wrapped the ends of my arms around the bars.

"Cherry, are you okay?" I asked, panting in fear for my best friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the White Mushroom replied. If her mouth had been visible, she would have been giving a poor excuse for a smile; that much I could tell by the tone of her voice.

"Lilac," Midnight began, causing me to wheel around and face him, "since you now know that the work of Dark Love is a mere illusion, this is the only way to get you on our side." He narrowed his eyes as the mechanical arm lifted the cage again. "Either you surrender your heart to Maleficent, or your little friend here gets to go 'swimming.'"

I gasped as the cage was positioned over the edge of the castle, right over the water that seemed miles below. "You… You wouldn't!" I cried, shaking my head. Not only would a fall into the water from that height prove to be extremely painful (if not deadly), White Mushrooms could not swim due to their lack of legs! Pure panic overcame me. Was this it? Would my heart finally be devoured by darkness for the sake of my best friend?

"Make a choice, Miss Imperfect," Midnight taunted. "Either your heart… or your friend!"

_No… No, this can't be. _I began mentally sobbing. "You're a… a _monster_!" I growled, clenching what would be my fists had I possessed hands. "Only someone as low as the underworld (1) itself would do something like this!"

Midnight laughed. "You have exactly sixty seconds before I choose for you. Better hurry up!"

That… was… _it_! I bent down and began fanning myself, earning a look of confusion from Midnight. A second later, I sat up, ice shooting out of my hands. The Black Fungus shouted in shock before running out of the line of fire… err, ice.

"You'll regret that, you fool mushroom!" Midnight shouted, jumping in my direction. He bent down and shot poisonous gas at me. I turned away and plugged my nose and mouth to avoid breathing any of it in. When I turned back around, Midnight was readying to knock on another spot on the wall, obviously to send Cherry to her doom. I froze in place for an instant, and Midnight did the same thing as I regained my mobility. Thank goodness for Stopra spells.

"And you'll pay for kidnapping Cherry," I muttered, hanging my head and letting a light shine over me. I threw my arms into the air and summoned lightning from the sky to strike down on Midnight. He shouted in pain and fell to the ground. I walked over to where he lay and was about to cast another spell, but he quickly stood up and turned to stone. He jumped into the air again and exhaled another puff of poison gas. This time, I was a bit too late to dodge it and ended up inhaling a good bit. I threw myself down onto the ground and began coughing, hoping that it had not been enough to hurt me.

"LILAC!" Cherry shouted from above, her voice full of worry.

Midnight chuckled softly and hovered over me, his body back to normal. "I told you you'd regret attacking me, you fool. Not only have you injured yourself, but your friend is about to take the plunge as well." I slowly felt my strength being sapped from me. Why could I not cast a Cure spell? "You refused to accept my offer," Midnight continued, "and now you're going to pay the price. Both of you shall regret the day you began your rebellious ways!"

It became harder for me to breathe. Was I… dying? Or would my heart simply collapse (2), leaving me as a true Heartless? Either way, I was doomed. But I refused to go down. I closed my eyes, summoning every last ounce of strength I had left. It had to work… I _had_ to live! I _had_ to rescue my best friend! Finally, I found the strength to pull myself off the ground until I was straight up again. My vision was a blur, and I wobbled slightly.

"I would force you back down," Midnight began, "since it looks like you're about to do that yourself. Do you really think you can get out of this alive? Give it up!"

"No…" I whispered. "I won't give up." A new force entered my voice. "Cherry is my best friend in the world. I don't care if I die trying, but I'm going to rescue her! Even if it takes all I have, I'll make sure that you never hurt her again!" I held up my hands and moved them in an arch shape like I had done with I first discovered my powers. Bells appeared over my head, and my strength returned. Breathing became easier for me, and my heart began beating with power that it never had before.

Midnight seemed to have entered a state of shock for a split second, but he recovered and resumed his evil glare. "Fine. You want to fight, then we'll fight!"

"We already were fighting," I growled, taking a step forward. "And this is one fight that _I_ plan to finish!"

"Try me, stupid mushroom!"

"Gladly!"

I began to spin around in circles. A defending whirlwind, also known as Aero (3), appeared around me, prepared to block back anything he had to throw at me. Midnight turned to stone and jumped at me, only to be knocked back into the wall by my Aero spell.

Suddenly, the robotic arm above us began to move, and it brought the cage holding my friend away from the water. It lowered to the ground, and the door swung open.

"What the?" Midnight gasped, backing away. He looked over at the wall and growled. "I don't believe this." (It was right about here that I noticed that he had not been stone for several seconds.) "How did you manage to get me _right_ where White Cherry would be free?"

"Lilac!" Cherry called, running to me from her cage. She embraced me with joy. "I knew you could do it!"

I turned to Midnight. "_Ha_!" I laughed, putting my hands on my hips. "Now you don't have a hostage! Looks like you've lost this round, Midnight!"

"I may have lost this round," Midnight muttered, "but this battle, this war, is _far_ from over!" He charged at us, holding out his hands to send poison our way. I held up my arms to cast another Aero spell, but something had already jumped in front of Cherry and me.

Something orange.

To be continued… 

_Ha HA! Ended that one on a cliffhanger, I did._

_Anyway, it might be a while before I update this again. I need to finish uploading Behind the Mask and work on Shalla's Legacy as well as my other storiesn that I HAVEN'T canceled._

_By the way, feel free to guess whom the orange figure is._

_Few Author Notes:_

_I changed the first genre to Action/Adventure since there's going to be some more… uh, action and adventure in the story. Also, this story's rating may be changed to T if it gets any more violent._

_(1): I would have used a stronger word here, but I figured since the Kingdom Hearts world's devil is going to be Hades, I might as well say "underworld."_

_(2): I realize that there's nothing simple about a heart collapsing, especially compared to death itself._

_(3): I KNOW that there's a stronger version of this, but I was too lazy to look it up._


	7. Monkey's Mystery

_Why are little sisters so evil? My sis (know on here as Miley Cyrus Fan) is ALWAYS hogging the computer with the finished chapter 8 of Shalla's Legacy! Grr! Well, I guess I'm stuck working on this._

_Due to some certain events in this chapter and others, this story has now been rated T for Teen._

_Also, I am freakin' stuck on the last Riku Replicabattle in Riku's story. Why is he so hard to beat? (mutters)_

_Sorry this one took so long to get up, by the way. Fanfiction has been having heavy traffic lately._

_**crystalfeathers: **Hiya! Thanks for reviewing! And thanks for the quick-ref chart! I'll need it for later._

_Rike-sama! Where in the name of Lilac's ribbon are you?_

**Chapter 7 - A Monkey's Mystery**

Cherry and I looked up to see a monkey-like Heartless holding up a slingshot with one hand and holding about seven rocks in the other. I could only blink. Was she an Imperfect?

"Take _that_, you no good, dirty, rotten, poison-suckin' Imperfect Hunter!" the Bouncywild shrieked, stomping her foot.

That answered my question.

"Gah!" Midnight growled. He had obviously taken a rock to the head, because he was rubbing his purple cranium. "You… I thought you were _dead_!"

"So did I." The Bouncywild loaded another rock into her slingshot and took aim. "You two okay?" she asked, turning toward us.

"Yeah, we're…" I cut myself off with a gasp. When I got a good look at the front of her brown shirt, I saw no Heartless symbol. I could only back away with Cherry, who must have noticed the absence, too.

"What, is it my shirt?" the Bouncywild asked. "Yeah, I rubbed the symbol out when I found out that I actually had a heart."

_Wait a second… _I thought, scratching my head, _a Bouncywild that has a heart… who thought she was dead?_ "Coral?" I gasped, my eyes nearly popping out of my head.

"Yep," Coral replied, jumping into the air and firing another rock at Midnight. She did a flip in the air for effect and landed perfectly on her feet.

I was in pure shock. Coral, the Bouncywild that had been discovered by Midnight, was actually alive? _No time to dwell on that,_ I thought as Midnight shrunk down and prepared to shoot out poison. My first instinct was to shiver and wrap my arms around my self. Naturally, Firaga was cast once I completed my sequence. Midnight dodged the attack, only to slip on a banana peel that Coral had cleverly placed right in his path.

"You _are_ stupid, aren't you?" Coral laughed, shaking her head. "You didn't even know that I've been alive all this time!"

"Anyone would have assumed that you were dead after seeing what I did to you that day!" Midnight growled. "How did you even escape alive, anyway?"

"How am I supposed to know that?" Coral asked.

Cherry blinked. "If you don't even know, then how did you…?"

I looked over to see Midnight charging up what appeared to be another poison attack. "Oh, no you don't!" I shouted, floating into the air. A ball of darkness fell down on Midnight, altering the gravity around him and mashing him into the ground.

"Now to get you out of our way!" Coral shouted, moving in front of me again and aiming her slingshot at Midnight. I quickly did the calculations in my head. The hole in the wall (where did _that_ come from?) was only a few inches to the left of Midnight. I looked at the rock in the loaded slingshot and saw that it was aimed in just the right direction to send Midnight backwards into the hole. Perfect.

Midnight did not seem to notice the hole behind him. Either that or he just did not see that Coral was going to send him through it. Nonetheless, the shot was fired at him, sending him tumbling backwards toward the trap. He gasped and looked behind him to see the water ominously moving beneath him. He looked over at us, and our eyes met. Something felt strange inside me. Midnight muttered something in the language of darkness before tipping backwards into the water.

I was shaken with what I could not identify as fear or relief. I was glad that Midnight was gone and out of my cap (I would say hair, but that is one of the many things I lack), but I was afraid that Midnight had muttered a curse or something in darkness. Sadly, darkness was not one of the many languages I spoke very well. If he had spoke Heartless, I would have been able to understand it.

"Lilac?" Cherry whispered. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head as Coral bounced over to us. "I don't think so," I whimpered. "Do either of you speak darkness?"

"Sorry, but no," Cherry replied, shaking her head.

"Me, neither," Coral answered. "Why?"

"Because… When he was about to fall, he spoke in that language. I could tell by the way he accented some of the vowels."

"What do you think he said?" the monkey-like Heartless asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I sighed and hung my head, then quickly stood straight up before Thundaga could be cast. "I don't know. That's why I asked."

* * *

"So, you're _the_ Coral?" Cherry asked, sitting down on the end of my bed. "The first Imperfect to be executed after being caught by Midnight?" 

"Uh, that's halfway correct." Coral chuckled nervously and climbed up the walls to the ceiling.

"Oh, right," Cherry muttered, turning away. "Sorry."

"But I still don't understand," I stated. "I saw you being zapped."

"And my mom did, too," Cherry piped. (Cherry herself was on duty during Coral's execution.)

"How are you still alive?"

Coral wrapped her feet around a ceiling fan blade and hung upside-down, looking directly into my eyes. "Like I said back in the battle, I'm not sure. All I know is…"

* * *

(Coral's POV): 

"_I hereby sentence her to death!" Maleficent boomed, much to the joy of the audience. I did not see how they could be cheering as I tugged at the collar around my neck. What was so exciting about death, especially if it was happening to me?_

_I whipped out my slingshot and aimed at Maleficent, but the Black Fungus who had captured me, Midnight, smacked it out of my head, threw it on the ground, and smashed it to bits with his skull. I shrieked as I was forced onto a platform directly under an open-ended tube. As soon as my feet touched the metal, steel bounds wrapped around them, trapping me to the bottom of the platform. I yelled in fear and tried to use the inside of the tube to paw my way up and wiggle out of the bounds, but I was stuck tight._

_"LET ME GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I shouted, pounding on the glass._

"_Destroy her!" Maleficent commanded, pointing at Midnight. The Black Fungus snickered and turned to a control panel. I whimpered and looked up to see mass amounts of electricity charging up above me._

"_No…" I whispered as Midnight reached for a lever. He looked me in the eye and seemed to be whispering something. The last thing I remember was the lightning striking me before I blacked out._

_I will never know how, but I woke up what seemed like moments later. I groaned and held my aching head while scanning my surroundings. I seemed to be lying in a tree located in the backside of the castle. _What the…_ I thought, clutching the thick branch beneath me. I looked down to see several Wizards patrolling the area below me._

How in Walt's name did I get here? _I thought, hiding myself deeper within the leaves of the tree. _I _am_ alive, right?_ My hand found its way to my chest. _Well, my heart's still beating, so I must be alive. But… how is it possible?

* * *

"I've been pondering that same question for all this time," Coral concluded, releasing her feet from the fan blade and flipping onto my bed. 

"You said something about Midnight seeming to say something before he 'killed' you," I stated, putting quote marks in the air with the tips of my arms. "Do you think that has anything to do with it?"

"It seems logical," Coral replied, scratching her head. "But why would he try to save me and later try and kill me again?"

I fell headfirst onto my pillow. "That's the question of the year, Coral."

"And there's no answer," Cherry sighed, shaking her head. "It's all so confusing. Midnight could be the bad guy _or_ the good guy."

My mind instantly snapped back to the words that started the whole Midnight debate. I took a deep breath and turned to the two Imperfects. "Guys," I began, sitting up, "Cherry already knows this, but… Midnight kissed me for the sake of Dark Love the other night. It's just a mind trick, but… after he kissed me, he said, 'I don't just kiss any Imperfect.' Do you think…?"

Nobody was sure exactly what I thought they were thinking. Not even I was sure what to think. Was he still playing mind games with me? Was he an Imperfect? Most of all… what was his reason for kissing me: Dark Love… or true love?

_To be continued…_

_And the mystery resumes! What side is Midnight really on? Was it him who saved Coral's life the day she was to die? Will he ever confess his purpose? Why am I asking YOU_ _all these questions? … Maybe I should just shut up now._

_Stay tuned for the next chapter as the plot begins to unfold even more. Hopefully we'll find out who's on what side._

_By the way (I know, I'm talking too much), I rented Final Fantasy X-2 today and will be pretty occupied with that for a while... Well, at least until Monday night when I have to bring it back.I've never played ANY Final Fantasy game before this, and I'm impressed. I'm thinking of buying either FF7 (my friend's favorite)or FFX instead of KH2. What do y'all think?_


	8. A Few Twists

_Well, I bought Kingdom Hearts 2 yesterday. Let me put it this way: It. Rocks. My. Socks. And... Hehe... Leon looks SO hot in this game._

_**crystalfeathers: **Wow. You're the only one who's reviewing this story now. (cries) No fair! Where the HECK is Rike-sama? And I can't believe that you didn't think of a Bouncywild either._

_Just for the record, I didn't start on this until I got another review._

_By the way, I wrote this chapter while listening to Speed Over Beethoven and real Emotion._

**Chapter 8 - A Few Twists**

"What do you mean Midnight's alive!" I gasped, leaning forward.

"Well, I saw him walking around the courtyard today," Mauve explained. "He looked a bit... confused."

"I bet that fall did some damage to his brain," Coral pointed out. "I thought it would be enough to kill him, but... I guess not."

"How could he have survived a fall from that height?" Cherry asked.

"Rumor has it that a Wyvern caught him just before he slammed into the ground, but the shock was so intense that it wiped a part of his memory," the Search Ghost replied, floating next to my White Mushroom friend.

"But it's just a rumor," Cherry sighed. "You know how those are. They always –" Suddenly, her whole body went stiff. Her eyes grew more intense, and a dark aura seemed to surround her.

"Oh, no!" I whispered. "Guys, run! She's gone evil!"

"Say what now?" Coral inquired, jumping backwards. Mauve flew for the door, grabbing Coral's hand.

"I'll explain later!" The Imperfect Search Ghost rushed out of the room. "Let's go!"

I nodded in affirmation and made a dash for the door. Suddenly, I was face down on the floor, and not because of my damned lack of balance. Cherry was sitting on top of me, forcing one hand behind my back.

"Ch-Cherry!" I shouted, wiggling my body to break free. "Let me up!"

"Imperfect alert!" Cherry shouted in a monotone voice. "Imperfect alert!"

"Cherry, it's me, Lilac! You're best friend, remember?"

"Subject's name is Lilac! Repeat, subject's name is Lilac!"

_Oh, crap,_ I thought, trying to release my arm from her grip.

And who else but my Black Fungus mystery man was the first to enter the crime scene? "So, you've captured the most wanted Imperfect," Midnight laughed. "Excellent." He clapped his hands together, and two Air Soldiers appeared behind him. Cherry got off me and held both of my hands behind my back.

"Take her to Maleficent," she commanded, shoving me over to them.

"Oh, no you don't!" I shouted, fanning myself. I stood up and cast Blizzard on the posse before me, freezing them in place.

"Red Alert!" Cherry shouted, her voice still monotone. "The Imperfect has resisted arrest! Seize her at once! Repeat, seize her at once!"

That was my cue to run. I sprinted to the door and made my way down the hallway. When I rounded the corner, a certain Search Ghost grabbed my arm and started flying as fast as the air would allow.

"You okay?" Coral asked, running up next to me.

"I'm fine," I replied as Mauve let my arm go. "But a Red Alert has been sent out, which means we'll have every Heartless on our asses if we don't get out of here. Excuse my language." I managed to say both of those sentences without pausing.

"Yeah, thanks for that image," Mauve groaned, turning his head.

"Less joking, more running!" Coral shrieked as a group of Wyverns swarmed behind us. "They're gaining!"

"You don't think I didn't notice that?" I shouted, picking up the pace and hoping that my lack of balance wouldn't interfere.

"Lilac, use your magic!" the Bouncywild suggested. "I'll distract them with my slingshot. Mauve, you just... attack with whatever it is you Search Ghosts attack us with."

"But there are at least fifteen of them back there!" Mauve protested. "There are only three of us!"

Coral reminded us about a certain Heartless-fighting trio: "Hey! Sora, Donald, and Goofy were only a group of three, and they've taken down _hundreds_, no, _thousands_ of Heartless on their journey!"

"Yeah, but they had a Keyblade, and..." Coral interrupted me with a glare from her yellow eyes. "Okay I'll try. Mauve?" The Search Ghost hesitated, then nodded as we turned a corner. The amount of Wyverns had doubled during our little debate.

"Let's do this!" Coral spun around, still running, and fired a rock at the group, causing them to spin around in confusion. They bumped into each other in the panic. A few of them fell to the ground, but most of the Heartless were still after us. Mauve floated toward them and shot his hands at the swarm. Several of them were knocked back into the wall. Mauve retreated before anyone could grab him, and I took that as my cue to strike. My entire body left the ground, and an orb of gravity-altering energy appeared around the remainder, crushing them where they flew.

"All right!" I cheered, throwing my arms into the air.

"We did it!" Coral laughed, jumping on top of me. Mauve smiled and spun around in joy.

"Okay, that's enough, Imperfects." I gasped and spun around, causing Coral to fall backwards onto Mauve, sending them both to the ground.

"Midnight!" I gasped. "I thought I had you frozen!"

The Black Fungus snickered and shook his head. "Did you really think you had me defeated that easily? I'm not Maleficent's best for nothing. Now, that's enough of a show. You're all under arrest." He clapped his "hands" together, and Coral, Mauve, and I were suddenly in the air. Orbs of violet energy surrounded us.

"What in the name of Walt!" I shouted, pounding on the sides of the orb. Two Wizards rounded the corner, both of their staffs glowing. Of course.

"You've given us a lot of trouble, Lilac," Midnight said, pacing over to me. "But it all ends here. You and your little friends are through. Prepare to be destroyed!"

"I don't think so, Gassy!"

A blue and yellow figure bounced from behind the wall and on top of one of the Wizards. "Truff?" I inquired, watching the Rare Truffle bounce back and forth from Wizard to Wizard. The orb trapping my friends and I began to flicker and eventually faded, dropping us onto the ground.

"That's what you get for messing with my best friend!" my best friend called as she, too, rounded the corner.

"What in the name of Ansem!" Midnight growled. "You were the one who turned them in, you wench!"

"Ooh, 'wench,'" Cherry taunted, smacking the only conscious Wizard across the face. "How modern."

"What in the name of Walt Disney is going on here!" Coral groaned, resting her hand on her orange noggin. "First you almost get us arrested, and now you're trying to _help_ us?"

"I'll be happy to explain _after_ we get out of this," Cherry stated, throwing the Wizard that she had previously slapped over to Truff, who squashed it with his bouncing body.

"You... You stupid Imperfects!" Midnight shouted, stomping the ground with a part of his lower body.

"I wouldn't be saying that if I were you," I sang, putting my bow onto my head for the first time in forever. "You're outnumbered five to one, it would seem."

Midnight was silent for a moment. Finally, small chuckles were heard emerging from his throat. "No, I'm not outnumbered." I could sense a smile forming on his face. "Because I'm on your side."

* * *

"Gah!" Coral shrieked, throwing a rock across the lawn. "This is more confusing then Cherry's case!"

"I can understand that," Midnight sighed, checking his surroundings for anybody who might have been listening. "I mean, I must be one heck of an actor if I've managed to fool you all this much."

"So, let me see if I can comprehend this," I muttered. "All this time, you've been pretending to be this big Imperfect Hunter, but you're really an Imperfect yourself. And when you 'execute' an Imperfect, you really send them to a place so that they can plot against Maleficent under the cover of fake death."

"You're the only one who understands this, aren't you?" Midnight asked, looking me over.

"Apparently," Cherry mumbled. "I don't get it. If you were an Imperfect all this time, why didn't you tell us?"

"And," Coral piped up, "if this whole 'execution' thing is just a fake, where's Cobalt? I mean, he _must_ be alive, right?"

The Black Fungus sighed and hung his head. "Well, I didn't tell anyone about my Imperfect status... because I about knew that you were capable of handling anything I threw at you." He seemed to be directing that statement at me. "And... about your boyfriend, Coral... I wasn't the one who turned him in. It was Cherry, remember?"

"What difference does that make?" Cherry asked.

Midnight was quiet for a few moments. Finally, he explained, "I didn't get to tinker with the system moments before the execution like I normally do. So, since I didn't turn him in or be the one to destroy him..."

"He... He's gone, isn't he?" Coral whimpered.

"I'm afraid so."

The Bouncywild's eyes swelled up with tears. "I... I can't believe this. Since the day I woke up in that tree, I was holding on to this tiny hope that he was still alive. But..."

"I'm sorry you had to hear this, Coral."

"No, don't be." She looked up, tears still falling to the ground. "It's a good thing that I found out. Now I can stop searching and get on to what's important..." Her yellow eyes illuminated with a fierce glow. "Destroying Maleficent was my goal when I joined the rebellion, and it always will be! Who's with me?" She held out her hand.

Without any hesitation, my hand joined the group. Mauve was second, then Cherry, and finally Midnight. "For freedom!" the Black Fungus whispered.

"For freedom!" we all echoed, throwing our joined hands up toward the sky.

_To be continued..._


	9. Interlude: Filling in the Gaps

_I cheated and wrote this chapter right after Chapter 8. My Internet was down, so I decided to just keep writing. It's just an interlude chapter that, of course, fills in the gaps of everything that's been going on so far. Well, almost everything._

_And sorry if some of this stuff confuses you. It was really hard to write this so that it would fit in with the current plot and that of the next story. Yes, there's gonna be a sequel. I plan to call it A Heart's Wortha Thousand Words. I'm-a gonna shut up now, okay? Okay._

**Interlude - Filling in the Gaps**

"The password, please?" a Wizard whispered from within the bushes.

Midnight leaned in and whispered something in the language of Darkness. I gasped as I realized that it was exactly what he had said to me before he fell into the hole. _So that's what it was,_ I thought.

"You may enter," the gatekeeper said, ducking his head back into the cluster of green. The sound of a hatch opening was heard, and Midnight proceeded into the bush. I looked behind me to my Imperfect friends. They all nodded, and I followed the Black Fungus into the secret passageway.

* * *

Now, you must all be wondering how I suddenly had the trust of this "Imperfect Hunter" after the multiple times he had tried to harm me. Well, sometime between the points where he had defied the outnumbered thing and where we were talking outside, he explained the whole concept of how the Imperfects came to be. Apparently, Maleficent was running out of human subjects to turn into Heartless, so she decided to try and create one from scratch, and that one was Midnight's father. Sadly, she had failed to notice that she had created him with a working heart, giving him feelings and the need to rebel against evil.

"Oh, yeah?" Cherry had asked, hands on her hips. "If you have a heart, then let's feel it."

He let us. It was true, and Cherry had a bit of an embarrassed moment.

So, Midnight continued with his story on how he pretended to be pure evil, so Maleficent continued creating these Heartless. She made one of every species in the exact same way that she had created Midnight, including Coral's mother and mine. Eventually, she realized that all of her creations had failed, so they had to go into hiding and disguise their hearts. She continued creating Heartless using a different method. They had no hearts, but most of them were still good.

Eventually, the Imperfects, as the good Heartless came to be called, began mating, creating more and more Imperfects until an entire army was formed. In fact, I had been born around the time that the Imperfects first battle was about to start. Both my mother and father had hearts, so that trait was passed on to me.

Unfortunately, just days after I had been born, my mom and dad fought in the first battle of Imperfects vs. True Heartless. They battled with great skill but were killed during said battle. In fact, almost the entire Imperfect army was eliminated or seized for later execution, explaining why the Imperfects are so short in number these days.

Midnight had to suffer the same fate, but in a bit of a different way. He was a few months older than me, and he lost his parents to Imperfect Hunters about the time my parents were murdered.

But enough of the fill-ins. Back to the story...

* * *

"So, this is Imperfect HQ," I observed, looking around at all of the Heartless in the room. The area was pretty dark with only torches lighting the rooms, but it was good enough for a headquarters full of rebellious ones.

"The only ones who don't know me to be an Imperfect Hunter are the ones who are in this headquarters," Midnight explained, looking over at several Heartless surrounding a large piece of paper on the wall. They were obviously battle plans of some sort. "And the only ones allowed in here are those who can pass my tests."

"So that explains the part where you tried to kill me," Cherry said. "That's pretty smart, pretending to be evil to benefit the good."

"As simple as it seems, the job's not very easy. You have to plan everything out perfectly, otherwise someone could get hurt."

"That _does_ sound hard," I contributed. "How do you manage it?"

Midnight turned his head toward me and seemed to be smiling. "It takes practice. In fact, before he died, my father had to teach me a lot of this. The rest, I sort of taught myself."

"Wow..." I whispered. My face felt a bit... warm. Was I blushing?

"Lilac?" Midnight asked as he halted his steps. "Do you remember how the pronounce the words I said to you before my near-death experience?"

"Uh... I think it was... _Sola fra'adon al'n_, right?" I repeated, hoping to Walt that I was right.

"Right. Do you know what it means, though?"

"I... I don't speak Darkness very well... In fact, not well at all."

"Well, it actually translates to 'Light free all,' which basically means that goodness will free us all," Midnight explained. _(A/N: I made that up. Go me!)_ "That's a very important saying among Imperfects. It gives us hope that we can rise up against Maleficent and destroy her once and for all!"

"By the way, how _did_ you survive that fall, anyway?" Truff asked. (Cherry had told him about it before we came here.)

"Like I said, it takes planning," Midnight replied. "The rumor about the Wyvern catching me was true, but I didn't have amnesia or anything. I just did that so you would think that I hit my head on something during the fall. The Wyvern, Camilla, was part of the whole plan."

"Master Midnight!" someone called just before Midnight had finished his sentence. A rough-sounding Air Pirate with an eyepatch over his left eye flew up to the Black Fungus. "Sorry to interrupt, but a posse of Maleficent's best Heartless has gathered outside! They know of our headquarter's location!"

"_T'shi!_" Midnight growled, obviously swearing in Darkness. "Round up the troops! Send out a signal to all Imperfects and get everyone here as quickly as possible!"

"Yes, sir!" the Air Pirate confirmed before flying past us to a rather large cluster of Heartless.

Midnight turned to us with a serious look in his eye. "See the eyepatch over his eye?" he asked. We all nodded in affirmation. "That's the result of what happens if you don't plan everything out perfectly."

_To be continued..._

_Our normal plot will resume in Chapter 10! Or rather, Chapter 9._

_And, just because I can, I'm going to explain how I cam up with each Darkness word!_

_Sola, or Light, has two origins. The Japanese word for Sun is Soleli, and solar is a word related to the sun._

_Fra'adon, or Freedom, is basically spelling freedom but with A's where the E's are and an N instead of an M. The apostrophe was added at random._

_Al'n, or All, is simply replacing the last L with an N and adding an apostrophe._

_T'shi, or the 'S' word, is spelling said word with the T at the beginning instead of the end and the apostrophe that a lot of Darkness words have._


	10. Surprise Attack

_Holy t'shi! I have 16 reviews! When the heck did that happen?_

_**kingdomhearts soar: **Okay, phew! Glad that I don't have only one reviewer now._

_**crystalfeathers: **Well, I didn't make my own language. I just made up a few words. Making a language is freakin' hard... And it's hard even for me to believe that he's a good guy._

_**BlackDragonofdarknessflames:** No, this is not going to be a Sora/Lilac or Sora/OC story. In fact, Sora's barely mentioned in here at all. Sorry._

_P.S. Rike-sama, if you ever read this story again, I found a great site with a guide to all the Heartless. Lemme know if you still want it._

**Chapter 9 - Surprise Attack**

"As I'm sure you all know," Midnight began, standing before his troops, "we are about to have total war with the Heartless. They have located our stronghold, but do not fear. We are strong because we have the power of light." Cheers erupted from the crowd, especially from me. My heart was beating faster than normal from all the excitement. "We shall strike before they can attack us!" Midnight continued, punching the air. "It's time to end this war once and for all and avenge our deceased family members!"

Everyone was yelling and jumping up and down into the air. I looked around me to see all the friends that I had made during my adventure: Cherry, Coral, Truff, Mauve, and, of course, Midnight. Even if they had not been helping from the beginning, I knew that they would always be there for me, even if it was them who got me into the situation in the first place. Together, I knew that we could win the battle. No, not just the battle. The war.

"Now, we have to plan fast," Midnight announced. "There's not much time. It won't be long before the Heartlessattack.You shall all be divided into teams based on your skills and unique abilities. Now, will all who are able to fly please do so know." All of the Air Pirates, Air Soldiers, Angel Stars, Blue Rhapsodies, Darkballs, and other flying Imperfects (including Mauve) hovered into the air several inches above the audience (unless they were in the air already). "Your job will to wait for theteleporters to come in– I'll explain that part later – and dive in from above. Some of you will have other jobs which will be explained in a few moments. Now, I need all of the Rare Truffles to please step forward."

Truff was the first one to step to the front row. Three others followed him, bouncing slightly with excitement. "You will lead our surprise attack. Mauve, Elkor, Urspadon, and Fright will carry you," he explained, looking at some of the Search Ghosts in the room. "In order for this plan to work, we'll need distractions. I'll need all Bouncywilds and Powerwilds to run out the front door when I give the signal and distract them as well as you can. Give them a false sense of security and don't attack too often. Once you're ready, I'll need Coral to stomp the ground five times with her left foot, and the Rare Truffles will be dropped down to lead our surprise assault. Those who can teleport will come in right after. Once they're in, everyone else is to either dive in or run out from the sides and attack. Any questions?"

My arm shot up instantly. Midnight looked over at me and nodded. "Um, what if you're not sure if you can do teleporting magic yet?" I asked, looking around a bit nervously to make sure that nobody would make fun of me. Apparently, everyone had heard about me and my abilities, because nobody murmured anything about me.

"Once we get to the battlefield, when the time to teleport has come, just try," Midnight replied. "If you can't do it, just wait until its your team's turn to attack." I nodded in affirmation as Midnight looked across the audience. "Any other questions?" Silence. "Great. Now, it is time to act. Those who have been assigned to carry a Rare Truffle, follow me with your comrade."

Truff bounced over to Coral, Cherry, and me with Mauve hovering close behind. "Well, guys, this is it," the Search Ghost uttered. "The battle between the forces of good and evil."

"This isn't just a battle," Cherry stated, standing up as high as she could. "This is the start of a war!" She paused, apparently realizing how dramatic she had been, and laughed nervously. "Anyway, good luck, you two!"

"Thanks!" Truff and Mauve harmonized, running (and flying) over to the small group assembling at the back door.

"Can you believe this?" I sighed. "I never thought I would actually have to fight. And yet, here I am, ready to strike against the enemy force. It's so exciting! My heart's beating faster than ever before!"

I looked over to Coral, who looked less than excited about the battle to come. "Coral?" Cherry inquired, walking up to the monkey Imperfect. "What's wrong?"

Coral sighed and shook her head. "You heard Midnight. Bouncywilds _and_ Powerwilds are to be the distractions."

She didn't need to say anymore. I knew that she had been thinking about her late boyfriend, Cobalt. The whole situation made even me want to cry, but I held back. I had to be strong for my friend. "Coral," I began, taking a deep breath, "I know it's hard, but you have to realize that, even though he's not here, Cobalt will always be with you." I gently poked her chest with my arm. "He'll always be right there, and he'll never leave."

Coral wiped a tear away and sniffed. "Thanks, Lilac." She embraced me, and I gently stroked the back of her head. I heard Midnight call out for the other flying Heartless to assemble outside, and several others left the room. It was only a few moments later that he called for everyone else but the Bouncywilds and Powerwilds to follow him to the battlegrounds.

"Well, I guess we've gotta head off," Cherry muttered, looking a bit nervous.

"Good luck, you two." The Bouncywild released me and patted my back. I smiled and nodded at her before turning to follow the large group outside.

The time to fight was now. Today would mark the beginning of yet another war against the Heartless. It would be a recreation of what our parents had faced, but we would have more victory. We had more plans. We had the element of surprise on our side. Most importantly, we had the greatest leader any army could ask for: Midnight, the Ex-Imperfect Hunter.

* * *

It was time.

I had been instructed to stay up front with the Wizards and Search Ghosts behind a large bush, since I was possibly to teleport in with them. Several Heartless were crowded around the entrance to the headquarters, ready to attack. My heart was pounding. The whole thing had seemed exciting at first, but now I was having second thoughts. What if something happened to me or, worse, to my friends? What if one of them got killed or captured during the battle? I was scared, yes, but I wouldn't let that hold me down.

Suddenly, the doors to our stronghold swung open, and the monkey-like Imperfects stampeded out and began jumping around. (Maleficent must have made the most of those.) It was almost time... Only a few more moments, and I would enter the fray with my arsenal of magic powers with me.

My eyes were on Coral the whole time. Not only did I need to watch her for the Rare Truffle's signal, but I also wanted to make sure that she didn't get hurt. I think Midnight had said to distract them for just a few minutes and make sure that they stayed away from our temporary hideout. I counted the seconds in my head, my heart rate increasing with each passing second. 3... 2... 1...

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Suddenly, four blue figures fell from the sky and bounced on top of some Wyvern's heads. They roared with anger and tried to shake them off, but they, especially Truff, clung tight, bashing them with every ounce of their strength. The Wizards around me rose their rods while the Search Ghosts, including the ones in the troop in the sky, began to teleport. I closed my eyes and concentrated all of my magic power, imagining a place in the middle of a cluster of Bandits. I felt energy rush through me. When I opened my eyes again, I saw several Heartless dressed in desert attire surrounding me, swords aimed in my direction. It had worked!

"Take this, you good for nothing morons!" I growled, hanging my head and letting a light appear above me. I suddenly threw my arms into the air, casting Thundaga on the surrounding enemies. I turned around and did the same to a group of Shadows. They all easily went down in a puff of smoke.

The Soldiers behind me were suddenly on their backs on the ground with a banana peel under them. I spun to the left to see Coral winking at me, slingshot in hand. I winked back and ran toward a group of Wizards who were gesturing to me.

"Lilac," _Litra_ (Darkness for Book) rasped in a familiar voice. I recognized her as one of the Wizards who had helped me learn magic that day. "Think like a normal White Mushroom. Do the motion where Thunder is to be cast."

"O-Okay," I replied, hanging my head and letting a blank lightbulb appear above me again.The Wizards around me started filling it with Thunder energy until I felt like bursting. When I was at my maximum, I held out my arms and cast the most immense Thundaga spell ever seen. Nearly half of the enemy Heartless were wiped out. Several shining hearts were seen rising into the night.

"I don't think I can do that again," I sighed, falling over. Luckily, someone had caught me before I banged my head on the ground. I turned around to thank them, only to see a pair of menacing yellow eyes. I gasped and tried to get up, but the Wyvern's toes wrapped around me. I shrieked in fear as my captor began pumping its wings and carrying me higher and higher...

"Lilac!" Coral shouted, jumping up and grabbing me. She attempted to pull me free but only succeeded in getting herself thrown into the wall and passing out.

"Coral!" I yelled, trying to wiggle free. "Let me go, you dumb dragon!"

The last thing I heard was Midnight and my other friends calling my name. Mauve, along with several other Search Ghosts, flew after the Wyvern and try to rescue me, but they were driven back by several Heartless Wizards. One of the Wyvern's toes lifted up and hit me on the noggin, causing me to black out.

_To be continued..._

_Short, cliffy chapter! Mwahahahaha! -looks around- I'm okay._

_Ooh, almost forgot the Darkness word origin for this chapter._

_Litra, or Book, comes from the English word Literature. The character Litra was originally intended to be a boy, but the name sounded more femaleish. She was called that because magic is often__associated _with books.


	11. Nobodies

_Wewt! New chapter!_

_Just for the record, I'm gonna be updating this more than Castle Authoress. I know how this is gonna end, so I wanna finish it as soon as possible. After that, it'll be sequel time!_

_**crystalfeathers: **Thanks! Glad someone's still reviewing..._

_This is the last call for Rike-sama! Rike-sama, please report to the Ribbon of Heart story. Thank you._

**Chapter 10 - Nobodies**

_(Chapter 10? Whoa... I've never written this long of a story before!)_

My senses slowly came back to me. I touched the ground with my arm and felt nothing but metal. My eyes slowly opened. Black bars stood in front of a familiar room. My eyes widened as I finally caught up with reality: I had been kidnapped and was being held in the same room that many Imperfects had been executed (and fake executed).

"So, you're awake," a female voice spoke in a gentle yet dark tone. I gasped and looked over to the left to see none other than Maleficent standing there, smiling evilly. I shrieked and backed away in fear.

"You've caused us more than your share of trouble," Maleficent chuckled, looking me over. It was useless to hide – Maleficent knew by the bow that I wore on my head that she had captured none other than Lilac. "But now, I can use you to complete my plans of executing every Imperfect ever created!"

_I was afraid she was gonna say that,_ I thought, pulling myself to my... well, you know. _I could care less if I get executed, but if anything happens to my friends, I'll never forgive myself._ For about the billionth time, I began a silent prayer. _Dear Walt, please let my friends get out of this alive. I don't care what happens to me. Just let my friends be okay._ I paused. Did I dare to admit it? My mind seemed to act on its own. The next thing I knew, I was thinking: _Especially Midnight._

_(A/N: Wow. I'm switching to third person! Cool! Also, for some reason, the section dividers are broke... Weird.)_

"How could I have let this happen?" Midnight muttered, shaking his head. "I should have been more careful! I knew that those Wyverns could easily seize any Imperfect!"

"Midnight!" Coral shrieked, giving herself even more of a headache than she already had. "This isn't your fault. You didn't know what Lilac was gonna get kidnapped."

The Black Fungus exhaled a small amount of air. "You're right, Coral. You're right." He stood a bit taller and scanned the area. Despite the loss that the Imperfects had experienced, the small army had managed to come out victorious in the previous battle with few injuries. But now, a new battle was about to begin. A battle to rescue Lilac. A battle where they may have to face Maleficent herself. They would need a plan, and not just any plan. A _master_ plan.

Unfortunately, they no longer had their stronghold to strategize in. They were currently holed up in a cave a good distance away from the castle itself. Nonetheless, it provided adequate shelter and plenty of space in which to hide and come up with plans. Sadly, as far as plans went, Midnight had none. He knew that the castle would be heavily guarded now. There was no way that they could pull of another sneak attack, and they would easily be outnumbered by the Heartless in the castle.

Just as he was about to give up hope, several silver figures fell down to the ground, accompanied by white and peach figures, as well. They surrounded the small army of Imperfects. The silver ones had strange cross-like symbols on their foreheads, and their mouths were like open zippers. The other ones wore wool hats, peach pants, and skates on their feet. The Imperfects braced themselves for attack, but the tallest being held out his arm that had two belts tied at the end.

_My name is Tlaboc,_ the platinum creature silently explained. His words seemed to enter everybody's minds, even though there was no sound. It was almost as if he were typing in their brains. _I have no intentions of hurting any of you. In fact, we are all here to help you._

"What are you?" a Shadow questioned, twitching his antennas.

_We are Nobodies,_ a separate being explained. Despite the total silence, everybody knew that it was coming from the skater-like girl next to Tlaboc. _We are born from people who had strong hearts and were turned into Heartless._

"But, how does that connect to us?" Coral asked.

The female skated up to the monkey girl and stroked her head. _Coral,_ she transmitted, smiling warmly. _I was hoping I would get to meet you. And it looks like I did._

"How... How do you know my name?" Coral whispered. She was trembling slightly in fear of what this creature knew.

A silent chuckle, then she continued: _Because I am you. Coral, I am your Nobody, Laroc._

"But, how? You said that Nobodies are born from people who had strong hearts and were turned into Heartless. I was born from another Imperfect."

_I see we have a lot of explaining to do, _Tlaboc sighed.

_(A/N: First person again. Woot! Also, once again, the section dividers are broke.)_

I watched two Soldier Heartless pace back and forth across the room. Apparently, "nothing was going to get past them." I sighed and hung my head, careful not to cast a Thundaga spell in the process. Using any magic would only turn around and hurt me.

Suddenly, I heard a loud metallic clank. My eyes shot up to see a strange, female figure skating across the room, throwing the other Soldier into the other one, who was in a heap against the wall. "W-Wha?" I gasped as the stranger approached the cage.

_Don't speak,_ she mentally told me. I could only back away in fear. _There's no need to be scared. You and I have more of a connection than you think._ She slid over to a control panel and pressed a few buttons. Suddenly, the cell door swung open. _Now, get out of here._

"Are you crazy?" I hissed. "There are tons of guards out there!"

The girl smiled. _Don't worry. Help is on the way._

_To be continued..._

_Yay! I brought in the Nobodies! Yes, Dancers are my favorite. I don't know why._

_There are just a few more chapters left of this story. And, don't worry, the next one will be longer. I didn't wanna start the battle until next time._


	12. Rescue

_Sweet! I'm on a roll with these chappies!_

_**crystalfeathers:** As usual, you have provided a great review and useful info. (No matter how many times I read that, I keep thinking it says "useless.") Yes, these Nobodies are like Imperfects. You'll find out 'bout that in this chapter. And thanks for the hope that Rike-sama may come back._

_**xEternal Wingx:** New reader! Woot! Sorry. Like you, I have hyper issues. Loved your reviews. Yes, Donald is a Dummy Duck and always will be, no matter how adorable he is. Yes, Heartless have lips. Why? 'Cause I say so. And I may bring in Gir as a cameo._

_By the way, things are about to get a little AU. You'll see why in a sec..._

**Chapter 11 - Rescue**

_(Third person again.)_

Tlaboc peeked over the bushes. He smirked in confidence and turned back into the cave. _Everything looks good,_ he transmitted. _We can easily defeat them. You all know what to do, right?_ Everybody nodded in affirmation. _Good. _Without much warning, he suddenly commanded, _Ariel, now!_

All of the Imperfects with the ability to fly suddenly darted up into the air, surprising the guards. A Crescendo was about to toot its horn in warning, but a Dancer suddenly skated up to it and stuffed a rock into the funnel. Several other Dancers did the same thing, and the signalers were rendered useless. The ariel assault that had shocked the Heartless was now circling the group, along with the Dancers. The next thing they knew, several rocks were being thrown at their heads by Bouncywilds. The Wyvern that had snatched Lilac flew up into the air to avoid the oncoming attacks and aimed right for Coral.

_Defense!_ Tlaboc suddenly shouted. He jumped into the air, his body stretching out, and landed in front of the row of Bouncywilds, along with all of the other Dusks. The Wyvern tried to halt, only to be attacked by several bites from the Dusks. _(A/N: I never really paid attention to how Dusks attacked... in fact, I usually dodged them.)_

_Everybody else, go!_ The Imperfect army took this as their cue to start attacking the Heartless like crazy. Punches were striking, objects were flying, and hearts were floating up into the air. Midnight would occasionally turn to stone to defend himself, only to change back about five seconds later. He was, however, very good at confusing enemies with poisonous gas.

_Great! _This time, it was Laroc who spoke (or whatever she did to comminucate). _My comrade is waiting inside. The time to strike is now!_

The army ran toward the large castle's entrance, knocking down every Heartless that stood in their way like bowling pins. Midnight was the most eager to find Lilac and get her as far away from Maleficent as possible. All he wanted was for her to be safe. More than anyone, actually. His thoughts took a quick break. _Am I..._ he thought, his eyes growing a bit wide, _actually falling in love with her?_

x x x

_(First person.)_

I watched as the strange girl skated ahead of me and destroyed the guards in the next corridor. She was an incredible fighter, and she could actually cast magic. Not much, mind you, but even I had to start small. No matter how many times I asked, though, she never really told me who she was. The only answer I really got was, _I am part of you._

_We're almost there,_ she said, destroying the last guard.

"Where exactly is 'there'?" I whispered, tilting my head to one side in the cute way that White Mushrooms could.

_You'll see..._ She silently giggled and skated ahead. I ran as fast as my body could carry me to catch up.

x x x

Tlaboc halted the troops and turned to Midnight. _You lead,_ he commanded, gesturing for the Black Fungus to come forward. Midnight nodded nervously and stepped forward to a point right next to the Dusk. _Trust me. You won't regret this._

x x x

My rescuer stopped me just as we reached the door. _Go on ahead,_ she ordered. _I'll stay behind in case any more guards come your way._

I nodded uncertainly and proceeded toward the door. My magic level was at full peak. What if it was a trap? Despite the fact that she had helped me escape, the stranger still had not completely earned my trust. Nonetheless, I headed toward the door...

Only to have a charging figure run right into me.

I groaned and rubbed my head. When my eyes opened, I saw a familiar purple figure standing a few feet back. "Midnight!" I gasped, running over to embrace him. I held him for a few seconds before I pulled away, blushing beneath my dark face.

"Lilac," Midnight whispered. If he had a visible mouth, I knew he would have been smiling. "I'm so glad you're safe!"

_Ah, not yet,_ a male voice silently told me. I looked over to see a platinum creature standing just behind Midnight. _Sadly, this battle has just begun. I sent Calil here to get you out of the cage so we could have another fighting force on our team._

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

Suddenly, green lightning whizzed just above our heads. I shrieked, and Midnight pulled me to the ground. An evil cackle could be heard from the other end of the hallway. How I hated that cackle...

"So, you fools thought you could get away so easily!" Maleficent boomed, holding up her staff. "Oh, but how wrong you were. I am more powerful than any of you ever will be!"

"That's what you think," I growled, getting up. I began to shiver, and flames soon shot out of my hands. They were the biggest flames that I had ever seen coming out of my body.

Unfortunately, all that they had managed to do was make Maleficent angry. She simply absorbed the wall of fire with her staff, narrowing her eyes. "Oh, you foolish mushroom," she hissed. "Now you shall all..."

Something suddenly hit her in the back. Maleficent gasped in surprise and spun around to see a face that she always hated seeing. "Sora!" I called, jumping up and down like a Rare Truffle.

Sora smiled and waved at me and the group. Goofy chuckled, but Donald looked a bit less than happy to see me. Either way, he still grinned slightly.

"The Keyblade master," Midnight whispered.

"You guys get out of here," Sora commanded, pointing toward the door.

"No way!" I protested. "We wanna help you fight!"

_No,_ Calil hissed. _Not yet. This is not our battle. Let Sora handle things for now._

"I think she's right, Lilac," Cherry agreed, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We should wait a while."

I opened my mouth to protest again, but something told me not to. Whether it was Calil speaking again or my own gut instinct, I nodded. We proceeded out the door as Sora, Donald, and Goofy held off Maleficent. I turned back to make sure that they could handle things before leaving the castle.

Once we were outside, we all headed to a large cave a good distance away from the castle. We headed deep inside before the tallest silver creature stood atop a large rock.

_This is something the rest of you know,_ he explained, _but my name is Tlaboc. I am the Powerwild Cobalt's Nobody. A Nobody is ordinarily a being that is born from a person who had a strong heart and was turned into a Heartless. But we,_ he gestured out to all the other Nobodies in the cave, _are a special case. We were created from Imperfects that were either created by Maleficent or born from other Imperfects. So, despite the fact that we have no hearts, we can still feel._

_Like you, we have come up with a special name for ourselves. We are not like other Nobodies. We know how to feel and understand emotions. So, we are Bodies. Simply Bodies._

One of the Dancers stood next to Tlaboc, and their hands (even though they lacked them, which was a bit... weird) joined. _This is Laroc, Coral's Body._ Another Dancer stood up, accompanied by a Dusk. _And this, Lilac, is your Body, Calil, and her boyfriend Thgindim, Midnight's Body._

_Boyfriend?_ I thought, glancing over to Midnight. I turned away just before his eyes met mine, blushing.

"Just a question," Truff piped up, raising his arm. "You guys seem a lot like us. I mean, my Body can jump very well, Cherry's is half evil, and Coral's is quite swift. Why is that?"

_Because,_ Laroc began, smiling, _we all share much of you. The same powers, the same name, and the same fate._

"The same fate?" Coral whispered. "Then, why is it that Tlaboc is still alive and Cobalt isn't?"

"Guess again, my love."

Everybody spun around, and their jaws dropped open in shock. Standing there, half hidden by the shadows, was a certain blue monkey. Coral's eyes brightened.

"Cobalt?" she squeaked, approaching him. The Powerwild nodded. "Cobalt!" Coral jumped into her lover's arms, crying. "I... I thought you were..."

"I'm here, aren't I?" Cobalt whispered before giving his girlfriend a kiss on the head.

"I can't believe it worked..." I heard Cherry whisper.

I turned around and raised an eyebrow. "You can't believe what worked?" I asked.

Cherry sighed. "Well..." All of our friends, as well as several others, gathered around to hear the tale. "When I ended up turning evil and turning Cobalt in, something in me told me that I had done horribly wrong. I knew it once I converted back to good, too. So, I spent the next night making some adjustments to the execution system. I wasn't sure if it had worked, so I avoided talking about it. When Cobalt didn't come back, I was worried that he had been killed."

"But I wasn't," Cobalt assured her. "You did everything just right. I just had to stay hidden for a while." He hung his head. "Honestly... I wasn't sure if Coral was still alive or not, and I was scared to find out. So, I hid for a long time. When I saw everybody running to the cave, I just had to follow. Then I saw Coral, and I was so happy, but I held back until just the right time."

Tears were still falling from Coral's eyes. "I'm just... I'm just glad you're alive!" she sobbed, burying her face into his chest.

Cobalt stroked Coral's back for a while. He looked up at the group and smiled. "If you guys don't mind... Coral and I are gonna camp out in a different cave tonight. We, ah... need some time alone."

"I understand," Midnight stated, nodding.

x x x

Later that night, as I lay awake on the ground, my mind began to race. Everything was coming at me so fast, it was like a ton of bullet trains coming at me from every direction. Yet, somehow, I felt a certain sense of peace. Laroc had said that we shared the same fate as our Bodies. My Body and Midnight's were dating, so... were we destined to do the same? I rolled over to face the Black Fungus and blushed. There was no hiding it. In fact, I just wanted to wake him up and whisper four simple words into his ear:

"I love you, Midnight."

_To be continued..._

_Almost done, folks! All I need is a battle scene or two and... Well, I'm not tellin' what else!_

_Also, I have already started on the sequel, A Heart's Worth a Thousand Words. Hopefully, it'll be just as good as this one, maybe even better!_


	13. Return of

_Quickie, folks! Not a long chapter, just a bit of a... foreshadowing one. _

**kingdomhearts soar:** _Yay! You're back! I'm sorry that your laptop crashed. Oh, and don't worry about the long review. I tend to ramble, too. _

**crystalfeathers:** Don't worry, it'll be out almost as soon as the last chapter of this baby's posted!And now for the crappiest chapter in the whole dang story:

Chapter 12 - Return of...

Tlaboc and Cobalt stood next to the makeshift podium, wrapped up in some sort of conversation. Tlaboc, naturally, was silent the whole time, and Cobalt could be heard muttering softly in response. Finally, they both nodded and stepped up before us.

"Attention, fellow Imperfects and Bodies," Cobalt opened, an unusual thing for him to do. Usually, it seemed that Tlaboc got the first word. "I have recently spoken with a small team that entered the castle last night and picked up word from Sora himself. Maleficent was, indeed, defeated during the night."

Cheers erupted from the small army. Tlaboc held up his hand, and complete silence soon filled the room. _However, our troubles do not end there. A man by the name of Ansem still stands high. He is said to be more powerful than Maleficent herself, and, from what we have been able to figure out, he is the source of all Heartless._

Now, we all began to gasp and murmur amongst ourselves. I looked around and saw all my friends: Cherry, Midnight, Mauve, Truff... but where was Coral? I continued to scan the crowd for any sign of her, but I found nothing.

Don't worry, Calil silently said as she skater up next to me. _Your friend is fine. She's just a bit... occupied right now._

Calil silently said as she skater up next to me. 

I looked up at her and blinked. "Occupied?" I whispered, tilting my head.

Before she could reply, Tlaboc commanded silence again. _You all realize what this means, right? There are still Heartless among us, and we must continue to fight. No matter what it may take, no matter what the cost, we have to keep battling for the sake of good!_

Our final reaction to the speech was a round of applause. "Now," Cobalt began, looking over to Midnight. "Midnight, if you will, please share with us your plan for the upcoming battles."

The Black Fungus proceeded up front, but he was soon halted by something whizzing over his head. I gasped as the green bolt flew over to the podium... and stuck Tlaboc right in the chest.

"What the?" I gasped, looking behind me as several others crowded around the unconscious Body. Evil, female laughter was heard echoing through the cave. Laughter that sent chills through everyone's spines.

Maleficent's laughter.

"Everybody, run!" Midnight commanded.

"How is she even alive?" Mauve shouted over the commotion.

"I'm supposed to know that?" Truff yelled, trying to avoid getting trampled by the other ones of his kind

I, however, was frozen with fear and confusion. Mauve was right – how _was_ Maleficent still alive? Sora killed her the night before, right? In the midst of my thoughts, I did not see a staff being aimed right toward me. I also failed to see the green magic being cast at me. Luckily, a certain male friend of mine _did_ see it just in time to shout out my name and push me to the ground.

I grunted as my back hit the stone floor. A dark purple figure was on top of me, his arms wrapped around my middle. I was breathing hard for a moment, then I finally calmed down when my brain caught up to me.

Midnight had just saved my life.

"You okay?" he whispered, getting off of me. He took my arm and pulled me up.

"Yeah, I... I'm fine," I replied. I could feel my heart rate go up by several beats. "Thanks."

The Black Fungus nodded before turning to the entrance, where several Imperfects were weaving their way around the vile witch woman. "Come on!" he ordered, dragging to the entrance. "We gotta hide!"

I nodded and followed him into the sunlight... Well, what there was of sunlight, that is. I suddenly felt a hand grabbing my back. I shrieked until I heard a familiar voice. "Don't worry. It's just me."

I looked back and sighed in relief when I saw that it was only Litra. "Oh, thank Walt," I muttered, looking over to see that she had grabbed both of us. Several other flying Imperfects were carrying those without wings and/or levitation skills. The Bodies were either using their quickness or their ability to skate to escape. Calil and Thgindim were right below us.

"Okay, I'm lost," Litra rasped. "Cobalt said that Maleficent was _killed_, and yet here she is, chasing after us like – ah!" Litra swerved in mid-air to avoid an oncoming Heartless Wizard's attack. "And now she's got backup. Dammit!"

"What do we do?" I gasped, looking around to see an entire Heartless army coming our way. "There's _way_ too many of them!"

Midnight regained his composure (or at least as much as he could for someone being carried by a Wizard) and inhaled deeply. "Lilac, let me ask you something. Were there too many of them when they found our stronghold? No. There's not too many of them now, either, especially since we have double the numbers than before!"

You'd better listen to him, Lilac, Calil transmitted. _You'll be doing a lot of that in the future._

Calil transmitted. 

I blushed so much that my black face actually changed colors to a dark magenta. "You're right, Midnight!" I narrowed my eyes and inhaled until my lungs were full to bursting. "EVERYBODY, LISTEN UP!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Nearly everybody glanced at me for at least a second, some even locking their eyes with mine for a long moment. "We can't keep running like this! We're gonna have to fight!"

"Uh, Lilac," Mauve began, flying in next to me with Cherry and Truff in hand, "have you lost it?"

"Hey, it's either fight or get ourselves killed in the middle of the night!" I looked around and saw the still-unconscious Tlaboc being carried by one of the few Imperfect Wyverns on our team. "Is he okay?" I asked. Yes, total subject change.

"Hopefully," Cherry mumbled, looking down at the ground.

"Lilac is right!" Midnight called. "We can't just run away everytime Maleficent knocks on our door. We have to take her down somehow, especially since Sora's not here to help us anymore! It's time for us to stand up tall and fight a true battle for justice!"

I sighed softly and smiled. He was so good with words...

Litra lowered to the ground and dropped Midnight and me to the ground. "Everybody, turn around and drop your companions! It's time to stand up and fight!"

A few, namely Mauve, fell in line and prepared to battle, but the others were quite hesitant. "Come on!" the Search Ghost shouted, throwing his hand at an oncoming Heartless. "We can't do this alone!"

Maleficent cackled in the devilish way she could. "You fools! You can't win! Prepare to die under my wrath!"

To be continued...

Holy feck, what's wrong with me? Ah, whatever. At least I updated, no matter how suckish the chapter. Hopefully, with the battle scene and all, the next chapter will be better.

By the way, this story is 35 Word Pages long, and several chapters are missing from the main document. I'll be sure to fill those in and give you the final page count.


	14. The Final Battle

_Whoo-hoo! _ _Battle__ time! Ah, but first..._

**_kingdomhearts soar: _**_That makes two of us; we BOTH whooped KH2 tail! I'm just glad it wasn't a super-suckish chapter. _

**_crystalfeathers:_**_ Well, I already have the sequel planned out, but that would make a great tie-in! I'll be sure to start on that and credit you for the idea! _

**_xEternal Wingx: _**_-backs away VERY slowly- You're starting to scare me more than I scare myself. -cheers- Yay! Someone more mentally insane than me! _

_Ooh, right, the battle._

**Chapter 13 - The Final ** **Battle**

_Dancers, strike!_ Tlaboc silently commanded. As if they had rehearsed it a million times, the Dancers swiftly skated over to a large group of Barrel Spiders. They glanced at each other as if to quickly coordinate a "dance." Calil nodded and grabbed one of the spiders by the arm as the others rounded up the remaining barrels into a line. The Dancer threw her little prisoner into the others, causing a chain reaction of explosions. Several other Heartless were caught in the explosion.

"Lilac, watch out!" Cobalt shouted. I spun to my left and saw a Gargoyle racing toward me. I bent to the side and grabbed his legs as he whizzed past me.

"Hey, Truff!" I cried, spinning the Heartless in circles. "Batter up!"

"I got him!" Truff replied, jumping up into the air. I tossed the Gargoyle at him, and he slapped it into a group of Black Fungi, knocking them over like bowling pins. "STRIIIIIIIIIKE!"

"Nice one, you two!" Cherry cheered.

I clapped my hands. "Cherry, I've got an idea! Round up all of our White Mushrooms and Wizards!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Cherry saluted, treating me like the general of the Imperfect army. She ran off in the opposite direction as I turned around to see Midnight struggling with a swarm of Blue Rhapsodies, Green Requiems, Red Nocturnes, and Yellow Operas.

" Midnight!" I quickly ran over to my partner in heroism, only to be stopped by a mob of Shadows. "Oh, _t'shi_."

"Aww, how cute," a female Shadow purred in a singsong voice. "Lilac wants to save her boyfriend." She ended the 'boyfriend' on a rather high note.

_Wait a minute..._ I thought. _A female Shadow... Singsong voice... Perfect high note?_ "Siren?" I gasped, backing away.

"That's right!" Siren giggled and narrowed her eyes. "Your stupid ghost friend might have made it out of my spell, but I very much doubt that you're strong enough!"

"I don't think so, _denki_!" Midnight shouted, suddenly breaking free of his own battle and jumping on top of Siren in his stone form. As soon as she was as flat as a piece of paper, the Black Fungus turned back into his normal form.

_My hero_, I mentally sighed.

"Lilac, I got 'em!" Cherry called. I spun around and gave her the best thumbs-up I could.

"Everybody, hold off the other Heartless and Male... Hey, where _is_ Maleficent?" I inquired, looking around. "I haven't seen her since – AIEEEEE!" I suddenly found myself being sucked into the air. I held out my arm in hopes that someone would catch me, but nobody was fast enough to grab me. I looked behind me to see a Heartless shaped like an empty oversized gumball machine. It sucked me into the large slot where the gumballs usually came out of, and I soon found myself trapped inside.

"Lilac!" Litra shouted. "Let her go, you bitch!"

Maleficent cackled evilly and appeared behind my captor. "You fools! You thought you could defeat me?" She held out her hand, and all the Heartless started flocking back to her like sheep. Everybody on the good side stopped and stared at either me or Maleficent. "Surrender to me, or the mushroom girl perishes!"

I looked down into the eyes of my captor. "You're not gonna turn me into a gumball, are you?" I shakily asked.

The strange creature didn't say anything. He locked eyes with me for a second and looked back ahead of him.

"Guys!" I shouted through the glass. "Whatever you do, don't surrender!"

"What?" Cherry shrieked. "Lilac, are you crazy? She'll kill you!"

"I don't _care_ what happens to me! Even if I die right here, I don't wanna see my friends being forced to the dark side!"

"Lilac..." Midnight whispered, approaching the capsule.

Tears were falling from my eyes and to the bottom of my prison. "Please, Midnight. Don't surrender."

Midnight clenched his fist. (How on _Earth_ did he do that?) "I won't surrender, but I'm not letting you die, either!" He jumped back and got into a fighting stance. "I'm gonna fight for you, even if it means getting killed in the process!"

I gasped. "M-Midnight..."

_Lilac,_ Calil suddenly transmitted. _Whatever happened to your plan involving White Mushrooms and Wizards?_

_Oh, right!_ I looked at Cherry. Something suddenly coursed through me; a new ability. _Cherry, can ya hear me?_

_What the?_ my White Mushroom friend silently gasped. _Lilac?_

_No time to explain. Tell all the White Mushrooms to get into an "empty lightbulb" position. Litra should know what to do next._

I could see Cherry's hidden smile shine through her face. "Mushrooms, empty lightbulb position!" she commanded, throwing her arms to the side like a powerful commander. I hung my head and felt the bulb appear over me. A shock suddenly went through me, and the light above me began to fill.

"What... What are you doing?" Maleficent shouted.

As soon as I was full of electrical energy, I spun around and faced the evil witch. "Take this, you old hag!" I spread my arms out, and several thousand volts of electricity shot out of my body, destroying the capsule. The other mushrooms followed my lead, eliminating several other Heartless around them. Maleficent was also struck a few times in the process.

"And _that_," I began, jumping back with my friends, "is the power of the light side!"

Maleficent seemed "shocked" for several moments, but she soon recovered... and started laughing? "You idiots! I cannot be easily defeated! I am _ten_ times more powerful than the clone that your friend Sora battled."

"_Clone?_" we all gasped.

"I have a really bad feeling about this," I whispered, backing up close to Midnight. When I saw how close I was to him, I blushed and scooted away.

_What, you guys are just gonna give up?_ an unfamiliar "voice" laughed. I looked up to see a dragon-like Nobody... er, Body soaring through the air. He suddenly dove down and stuck Maleficent hard, sending her into a wall. _Ever heard of "expect the unexpected"?_

"I was wondering when you'd show up!" Mauve chuckled.

"Uh, care to explain?" Cobalt whispered.

"Guys, that's my body, Evuam," the Search Ghost explained. "He's one of the few Bodies who has taken on Dragoon form."

"Well, at least we've got backup!" Cherry cheered, jumping into the air in sync with Truff.

_That's not all you've got,_ Evuam sang, flying circles around us. As we followed him, we saw two figures standing behind us. Upon closer examination, I noticed that it was...

"Leon, Yuffie!" I gasped. "Thank Walt you guys are here!"

_They were in the area, and I thought you needed help, so I asked them to come._

"Way to go!" Truff cheered, hopping into the air with the other Rare Truffles. "Now, let's do this!"

"All for one and one for all, no matter how cliché that phrase is!" Cherry half-joked.

"And _I'm_ gonna help!"

My friends and I spun around to see Coral standing there, bouncing in excitement. "Coral!" Cobalt shouted. "What are you doing here? You're –"

"Cobalt!" Coral whined. "Let me fight!"

_Just let her,_ Laroc silently sighed. _I was in the same situation and came out okay._

"Uh, guys," I squeaked. "This is all fine and dandy, but can somebody please _help me_!" Several Heartless, at least one of each type, were surrounding me. I shrieked in fear and tried to back away, only to be corner by an Invisible.

"You guys take care of the Heartless!" Leon commanded as he shot at my would-be captors. "Yuffie and I will deal with Maleficent."

_With _our _help,_ Tlaboc transmitted. _We're gonna work together. Weaken her backup first._ Leon and Yuffie nodded in affirmation.

"Ready?" Midnight called from on top of Mauve's head. "CHARGE!"

Yuffie jumped into the air and threw her shurikens at the Heartless that surrounded me. I shot a lightning bolt at the remaining ones, and Yuffie high-fived me for my work.

"Lilac, I've got an idea!" Truff called. I nodded and ran up to him, burning up some Shadows on the way. "I'm getting all of the mushroom-shaped Imperfects together and having them stack on top of each other."

"I hope you don't plan on putting me in there..." I sighed. "I have the balance of a toothpick standing on its_ pointed_ end!"

"Lilac, don't worry. I'm putting you on top. Me and the other Rare Truffles will jump down, one by one, and you'll cast Aeroga on us so that we can make an ultimate Heartless killing whirl – WHOA!" He bounced out of the way of an oncoming Pirate, and I quickly reacted by using the said defending spell to knock him into Truff, who quickly slapped him into the air.

"I see your point now. Okay, why not?"

As quickly as we possibly could, me and the other mushroom Imperfects stacked on top of each other with me at the top and Midnight right under me. I struggled to keep my balance for a few moments as the Rare Truffles got on top of us, as well. One of Truff's friends, Star (whom I suspected had a crush on Truff), was at the tip-top of the pile.

"Ready, Lilac?" Star called. Her voice sounded a bit like that of a human cheerleader's.

"I guess," was my meek reply. I sucked in a large amount of air and shouted: "Leon, Yuffie, and everyone else! Prepare for impact!"

Before I was even ready, Star hopped off the top of the "tower." I quickly cast Aeroga on her, causing a large tornado to form around her. She slammed into a group of Heartless, sending them flying in all directions. Leon, Yuffie, and the other Imperfects hit some back with their weapons and/or powers, the Bodies smoothly let them run into walls, and some of them even his Maleficent!

"It's working!" Coral rooted. "Truff, try the group _behind you_!"

"Coral!" I shrieked. It was too late. I heard Truff jump off the pile. I closed my eyes, hoping to Walt that I could cast magic on what I couldn't see. Soon enough, I saw a Shadow, Siren to be exact, fly over my head and slam into the ground, spelling her end. "Okay, never mind then," I muttered, giggling. The other two Rare Truffles hopped off the left and right sides of the pile, eliminating nearly every other Heartless on the field.

"We did it!" Cobalt whooped.

_Uh, guys, a little help here,_ I heard Evuam say. Everybody looked over toward the Dragoon to see him fighting with Maleficent.

"Everybody, go!" Mauve commanded, pointing his finger at Maleficent. Everybody stared at him for a minute. "What? It's my Body."

"Listen to the Search Ghost!" Midnight called. As soon as he had finished the order, all of the Imperfects dashed out toward Maleficent, charging up their special powers.

"You FOO – WHAT THE!" Maleficent cried as her staff was blown out of her hand. Leon stood a few feet back, smirking with his Gunblade over his shoulder. No wonder a lot of the human girls had a crush on him.

"GET HER!" I shouted, charging forward with all the speed I had. My magic spell charged up as all of the other magic Imperfects lined up next to me. As if we could read each other's minds, we shot out several large beams that were red, blue, and yellow, the same color as the three basic elements in magic. When the light faded, only a fading Maleficent stood there.

"You did it!" Coral shouted, hopping up and down.

All of the Imperfects were cheering as loud as their throats would let them. The Bodies were applauding as they watched Maleficent melt into the ground, leaving behind only her cape.

"And yet..." Cherry muttered, standing over the remainders of the she-witch, "something feels wrong. She just went down too... easily."

_And yet she's down,_ Calil announced. _All of her power is gone; she must have used a lot of it for her clone._

"Honestly, who cares?" Cobalt laughed. "We won! We defeated Maleficent!"

_To be continued... _

_Woo hoo! Maleficent has been defeated! But, wait, why is there a TBC at the end of this chapter? I guess you'll just have to find out next time! _

_This story is coming to a close. In fact, the next chapter may be the last. Of course, that's not the end of Lilac's adventures. If you've been keeping up, you know that there's a sequel, "A Heart's Worth a Thousand Words," coming soon! Also, thanks to crystalfeathers, there will also be a tie-in story involving the Bodies, which I still haven't named yet... I'm thinking something like "Something Over Nothing." Hope I can come up with something better! _

_Oh, ALMOST forgot: _

_Denki, or the "AH" word, originates from the English word "donkey," which is often referred to as an ass. No, that was not a swear. Take THAT, Mom!_


	15. Celebrations

_Woo hoo! The final chapter is here! You guys realize that this will make my first completed story, right? Yay me!_

_**crystalfeathers:** I'm excited, too! I'm working on the first chapter right now, but I may have to rewrite it. This story didn't turn out exactly like I had planned._

_**xEternal Wingx:** OMG! I'm a Squally lover, too! And August 23rd was his B-Day? I never knew that! Sweet! And, yes, I do think you're slightly insane, but I am, too. I'm adding Gir in the sequel and will sort of be advertising your story._

_**kingdomhearts soar:** I'll be sure to read your fanfic!_

_By the way, I wrote this while listening to "Every Time we Touch" by Cascada._

**Chapter 14 - Celebrations**

"This is just too good to be true!" I whispered after my sip of a special champagne blend specific for Imperfects. "We're free of Maleficent's grip!"

Midnight, however, seemed a bit less than joyful. "But the Heartless are still here. We still have them to worry about."

"Midnight, they should be scared of us by now!" Cherry laughed, hiccupping.

"Cher, maybe you should let up on the champagne..." Truff suggested. I couldn't help but giggle. My eyes scanned the room, specifically to my friends.

Cherry, one of the first Heartless that I had dared to talk to. Sure she could be weird at times, but she was still my best friend. I could tell that she and Truff belonged together.

Mauve, the Search Ghost that Cherry almost turned in when she had turned evil. He had resisted the Dark Love spell at one point, proving that he was very powerful, despite his lack of physical strength.

Truff, the Rare Truffle that was trained for fighting. Sure, that Star girl had a crush on him, and he seemed to like her a bit, too, but Cherry was the only one for him.

Coral, the Bouncywild that also had a heart. She was quite tricky, seeing as how she managed to "play along" with Midnight's scheme without being told to or caught. I was still wondering what Cobalt had been so worried about during the battle.

Cobalt, a very powerful Powerwild who, too, had escaped death thanks to an Imperfect's quick thinking. I didn't know that much about him, but I _did _know that he and Coral were tighter than bark on a tree.

Litra, one of my newer friends who helped teach me magic. She swore a lot but was smart and dang good with magic. I don't think I would have escaped that weird capsule thing if she hadn't taught me the lightbulb secret.

Finally, there was the Black Fungus that I had fallen in love with, Midnight. He was so brave, so heroic... Everything about him was perfect. And yet, I couldn't seem to bring myself to tell him how I felt. What if he didn't feel the same way? It was then that my eyes diverted to our Bodies, Calil and Thgindim. They were sitting at the table across from us in the Hollow Bastion dining hall, holding hands and staring at each other lovingly. It was then I made my final decision:

Tonight, I was going to tell Midnight that I loved him.

Tlaboc suddenly stood up and began tapping on a glass. _Everybody, may I have your attention?_ he requested. Everybody in the room, including Leon, Yuffie, Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked over to him. _Thank you. Today is a special day. We have finally rid ourselves of the evil witch that wanted to conquer the world, Maleficent. If it hadn't been for Sora and his friends defeating her clone, she might have been too powerful to handle._ The human, duck, and dog all beamed brighter than the sun itself. _Now, I know Sora and his friends will have a long day tomorrow, seeing as they still have to defeat one last threat, Ansem. We needn't worry about him coming here since he's waiting for Sora in a distant world._

"And hopefully, he'll _never_ come in this direction," Midnight chimed in.

_Thank you for your input, Midnight,_ the Black Fungus' Body stated. _Now, I have heard that Leon and his friends wish to rebuild this world into its former glory: a large, prosperous town brimming with beauty. We shall allow them to do so and find a new home of our own, whether it is in the newfound city or in a distant world. Either way, we can at least know that we will once again be allowed to live in peace._

Yrrehc, Cherry's little-spoken Body, giggled. _Well, I suppose that's enough chatter for now. Let's celebrate!_

With that, several objects were thrown into the air, whether it was a magic spell turned into fireworks, bananas from a Bouncywild, or a Wizard's staff. It was a toss of victory. I purposely tripped and cast the most alluring Curaga spell anyone had ever seen. It seemed to bathe the room in a green and yellow light of glory and victory.

That's what it was: Glory and victory.

x x x

I sighed and rubbed the mattress of my bed in the same room that I had always slept in. This would probably be the last time I felt that mattress. Honestly, I would miss it a bit. It reminded me of what I once thought I was: the only Heartless rebelling against Maleficent and her goons. Boy was I _wrong_!

"Hey, Lilac," Midnight whispered from the bed next to me.

I rolled over and faced the Black Fungus. "Y-Yeah, Midnight?" I answered, trying not to make my voice sound too shaky.

_How long have I been hiding this from you?_

"There's, ah, something I... need to tell you."

_Are you hiding something from me, too?_

"What is it, Midnight?"

_Whenever you talk to me_

_My heart goes wild and I split into three_

The Black Fungus seemed to hesitate. "Lilac... Remember that night that... that I... kissed you?"

_Your lips tenderly touch mine with grace_

"How could I forget?"

_That feeling just can't be replaced_

"Well... I... I didn't do it because of the phony Dark Love. I did it... because I'd fallen in love with you."

_Will I ever find the right words to tell you?_

My eyes began to tear up and leak more than Niagara Falls. "Midnight," I breathed, walking over to his bed as he sat up. "I..." Before I knew it, he had me in another kiss, this one more passionate than the last one.

_Do I know if you feel the same way, too?_

When we broke apart, I was holding back sobs of joy. "Midnight, I love you, too!"

We were silent for a moment. Two mushrooms. Two colors. Two powers. We were both different, and yet we had one same cause: defeating evil and defending all that is good. Finally, we embraced, both of us crying silently. We had done it. We had finally completed our two biggest goals.

_Let your heart guide the way to me, love  
__Let the light of me shine on your from above  
__If you say yes, one thing I can promise, dear  
__If we're nowhere close, I'll always be near_

A human by the name of Erica Jong once said, "Love is everything it's cracked up to be... It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for." Well, Ms. Jong, all I can say is...

I couldn't agree more.

**The End.**

_I just HAD to end with a famous quote of love, and I stumbled upon that one on the 'Net! Naturally, I don't own it, Erica Jong does. But I do own the little poem at the end which I think I'm gonna turn into a song. I like doing that._

_I wanna thank all of my wonderful readers and reviewers for taking time out of your day to pay attention to this story. Without your guys, I don't think I would have ever ended this._

_By the way, without all the author notes or anything, this story is 36 pages (give or take bit because of some spacing issues) with very narrow boundaries._


End file.
